This debate regarding SoT is interesting and highlights a few things:
- Tastes vary greatly between gaming enthusiasts which is why variety is so important
- More developers creating both mainstream and niche titles takes pressure off of fellow developers on a given platform to have to appeal to the masses
- Rare, 343 and Sumo were put in unfair situations because expectations were for them to fill the lack of exclusives by themselves
- Microsoft gaming is on the right track but gamers looking at exclusives will feel unfulfilled regardless of the direction these developers take because there isn't enough of them dropping games yet
Greatness in creative achievements doesn't come from artists chasing focus groups. Greatness can only be achieved with passion.
Bungie's classic Halo trilogy is my favorite series of all time. I'm not a fan of 343's Halo campaigns however I feel they've been in the middle of the road getting hit by traffic going both ways. They need to passionately create their own game.
SoT was my greatest disappointment of 2018. Rare still needs to create what they're passionate about and they're still doing that with a title that is all it's own with a passionate fanbase.
Dark Souls made the masses angry...however it has about 3 million hardcore fans that will follow From Software to any platform.
Nier Automata is a niche title that's weird to the masses...but about 2 million fans will follow Platinum to any platform.
God of War 2018 is not what the fans asked for (take note fellow Halo fans)...but is many people's game of the year and will be the reason many people buy a PS5.
Haunting of Hill House is not in a mainstream genre and an expensive 10 hour series like that would not have been created on any platform 5 years ago...however it's many people's best new show in years and people will follow those writers to another platform if another subscription service hired them.
Point is you don't build a subscription service with a passionate fanbase with a bunch of mainstream, focus group tested content. Some of it? Yeah. But it's the 2 million people here, 1 million there that are super passionate about content made from passionate creative talent that creates the long term hype and loyalty.
Here's the gap: Spencer and co. have to know there's passionate people that want to see classic Rare single player games and new content with Classic Halo gameplay. There are inevitably developers out there who are also passionate about those older franchises. Why not form new teams that will build off of Rare's old IPs or add ODST like content to the Master Chief collection while 343 and Rare blaze new trails?
