They work on Gears of War and Gears of War spin-offs. Just like 343i works on Halo and Halo spin-offs.
The Coalition is working on Gears of War 5 and helping with the 2019 Gears spin-off I'm pretty sure.
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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape
- Thread starter Figments
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The Coalition is working on Gears of War 5 and helping with the 2019 Gears spin-off I'm pretty sure.
it's unspecified, but I still believe that they're mocap partner actually worked on non gears things, it was TOO expicit, so the more natural explanantion is that they're working with another team on Perfect Dar covering the gameplay side, included animation, while the main focus remain on gears 5 and supervisioning the almost confirmed splah damage spin off
sometimes this previsions looks "unbalanced"
all thing that we know for sure are happening
If anything, Microsoft should buy EPIC.
But that will never happen.
They're sadly not public traded...
But that will never happen.
They're sadly not public traded...
I would say MS needs to double their teams (i.e. 1st party groups working on their own game) within a 5 years if they want to compete. So, they need to add at least 5-6 teams of 100+ people. We have already seen that start to happen with their already established studios, so I am counting their recent respective ramp ups as part of that 5-6 100+ team number.
EDIT: Because of Fortnite, Epic is way overvalued. It would be a bad time to try to buy them. I'm sure MS would LOVE to have the Fortnite IP, tho.
EDIT: Because of Fortnite, Epic is way overvalued. It would be a bad time to try to buy them. I'm sure MS would LOVE to have the Fortnite IP, tho.
I know. Don't mean you can buy that stake from Tencent.
But Sweeney hates Microsoft, so he would never sell.
Same could've been said about Bluehole.
But not Fortnite is bigger and seems to be staying #1 of the two.
F2P and being more family / kids friendly is a huge deal.
But Microsoft needs a game on Mobile beside Minecraft. Can't grow Xbox on phones, without a huge game...
Did you forget that Storylabs Productions said they were helping The Coalition on a "new IP releasing in 2019" or something like that for mocap?
Microsoft was asked (by a big outlet, forgot which one) if it's true The Coalition is working on a new IP releasing in 2019 and they responded something like: "The Coalition works exclusively on the Gears of War IP. We can't comment any further on this."
And I remember someone said that Storylab Productions "probably didn't know what new IP meant" and that the 2019 game is a Gears of War game but it's just not a mainline (not Gears 5), a new Gears spin-off.
I don't remember all of this completely clearly but I definitely remember the Storylabs Production site updating with that and it was immediately taken down hours later.
I don't get how these "company should do this" things turn into "rumors."
"I want a Forza Horizon in Japan" wasn't a rumor. It was a want. A popular want long before it became any kind of "rumor." No reliable sources ever suggested it.
Same with Coalition making a new IP. Edit: okay I missed the story lab thing.
Just wait, we'll get a rumor about 343 making a new IP soon.
"I want a Forza Horizon in Japan" wasn't a rumor. It was a want. A popular want long before it became any kind of "rumor." No reliable sources ever suggested it.
Same with Coalition making a new IP. Edit: okay I missed the story lab thing.
Just wait, we'll get a rumor about 343 making a new IP soon.
in italy there's a proverb that sounds like this "Rome wasn't build in a single night", so we have seen the first huge steps, just wait and relaxe
Not sure why Tencent would be interesting in selling their share, or a portion of their share. In any case, even if they did MS would likely have to pay much more than Tencent paid due to the explosion of Fornite and they still wouldn't have majority control over the company. The reason selling a portion of their company to a company like Tencent makes sense for American devs is Tencent can own distribution of their product for the Chinese market.
I've always wondered if the italians had a version of that phrase. That sorta thing is so cool to me fsr
In theory they should be expanding the avatar stuff to mobile and make a game that can be played across pC, Xbox and mobile that uses avatars
Someone said that Storylabs probably didn't know what new IP meant and that the game is real but by new IP it means "a Gears game that isn't mainline".
So for example, Halo and Halo Wars are both the Halo IP but are completely different and they're a mocap studio, not a game developer, probably didn't understand the true meaning of new IP.
Based on this, I'm going to say the game Storylabs was helping with is the Gears spin-off that Splash Damage has been leaked to be making in collaboration with The Coalition (by way too many reliable sources to be fake) set for 2019.
The Coalition stuff has me excited , I'm hoping it's more of a different genre set in the Cog world than just a direct "spinoff." Judgment was fine but I like the rumor of a horror game more.
Right this makes sense. I'm just correcting myself because technically this is a place where someone could get "new IP" from the coalition. So it doesn't fit as well into my argument.
Forza Japan tho. That escalated from just "popular idea" to "rumor." I don't get why that happens.
What i think is going on.
There is indeed a Gears spinoff in the works
Splash Damage is making it
Storylabs is involved also
Coaliton is helping as its their IP and Klobrille his "leak" said they were. Dont think that Perfect Dark thing was anything really. And i believe Klobrille only saw the word Dark (correct me if i am wrong)
This way Coalition also has more time for Gears 5 to fully change up alot as thats what Gears needs. And they said also that with 4 they wanted to show they could make a Gears game and then start to change it up.
In the meantime a spinoff elevates the brand more and the world building. And the movie is a part of that also.
There is indeed a Gears spinoff in the works
Splash Damage is making it
Storylabs is involved also
Coaliton is helping as its their IP and Klobrille his "leak" said they were. Dont think that Perfect Dark thing was anything really. And i believe Klobrille only saw the word Dark (correct me if i am wrong)
This way Coalition also has more time for Gears 5 to fully change up alot as thats what Gears needs. And they said also that with 4 they wanted to show they could make a Gears game and then start to change it up.
In the meantime a spinoff elevates the brand more and the world building. And the movie is a part of that also.
I keep forgetting we're getting a Gears of War movie. Crazy that we get a Gears movie before a Halo one but Universal seems pretty keen on the Gears movie. I know one of the producers from the new Planet of the Apes trilogy is working on it. Hoping they can land Matt Reeves to direct as well. The Dawn and War for the Planet of the Apes films have a similar apocalyptic vibe that Gears 1 has.
I dunno, it takes time to build games. Depends when Microsoft feels like sharing its roadmap. Matt Booty is new in his role. I'll have higher expectations next year. MS doesn't really think in terms of generations anymore.
Some of those rumors include stuff most people have heard about, some kinda Gears spin-off, Nier and maybe even Nioh, Forza Kart game, Fable 4 announced. Only thing I'd be willing to bank on atm is a new Elite controller, and Forza Horizon 4. Xbox is often full of surprises though... so I'm expecting something(s) on that front. I have no more info than anybody else on Xbox's E3 really.
Appreciate the response Jez.
I really hope there will be at least two mind blowing games beside Forza, I don't want another disappointed year.
New Elite is day one for me. :)
That Perfect Dark rumor had some in the media said they've heard about its existence as well. Alanah Pierce was one of the ones that stated it. About 6:26 on this link.
I think it's important to get a few key facts straight in this ongoing discussion.
- A lot of people refer to this article with an interview with Phil Spencer on Bloomberg. It's true that the sub-headline of the article literally says "Company will open new game studios or acquire them". However - and that's a big one - if you actually read the quote Phil makes - he never states anything in this direction. The sub-headline was made by a Bloomberg author - not by Phil. The closest thing Phil ever said in that article was: "We need to grow, and I look forward to doing that".
- Microsoft refers to "first-party" not only when talking about their own studios - but also about the work that is being done by Microsoft Studios Global Publishing. So a Forza Horizon 4 game made Playground Games is still a first-party effort in their books - and that's completely fine.
- The "grow of first-party" Phil was originally referring to is in fact happening already. Right now to be precise. All of their first-party studios are growing and still on a hiring spree. Their studios like Turn 10, The Coalition, 343 or of course Rare are bigger today in terms of staff count than they ever were. The numbers also line up with the rumors, with growth starting pretty much the moment Phil got promoted to the Microsoft Leadership Team.
- Microsoft created a completely new division just for the gaming cloud business. This division will handle all the work that is being done with the Azure infrastructure for gaming as a whole and not just Xbox. Starting from dedicated server support for multiplayer games, to game streaming possibilities and ending at cloud computing work.
- There is a (new) team called "Xbox Growth" Microsoft has been hiring for lately. Whatever that is remains to be seen.
- There is still the chance Microsoft will make an acquisition in terms of 1 or 2 studios. While this isn't ruled out in general, keep in mind Microsoft - as a whole company - is in active process to reduce staff count. They simply have too much employees. The Xbox division can't just create 1,000+ new staff salaries. This is simply not compatible with the strategy Microsoft is heading. It would be irresponsible towards the rest of the 100,000+ employees. If Microsoft will make an acquisition or creates new studios specially for Microsoft Studios we are talking about medium sized studios here - which its completely fine.
- We know from various insiders as well as Microsofts own financial reports that Microsoft is actively investing in the Xbox division. Their first-party output will grow. This is a safe call to make.
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They are actively trying to reduce the number of employees rightly so because of the pay standardisation, let each division set their own payscale - reduce the cost of an employee in Xbox division to what is more aligned to the industry at large - you would have a winning strategy but if they want to grow they have to grow by having multiple studios working on multiple IP not just one studio working on multiple new IP an call it a day.
Even if MS say we are investing an extra $170m into creating new AAA games by worldclass developers, if you don't own those Studios and tencent come along and gobble them up your at square one again.
Even if MS say we are investing an extra $170m into creating new AAA games by worldclass developers, if you don't own those Studios and tencent come along and gobble them up your at square one again.
I'm sorry, but is there a source for this?
Microsoft clearly stated they are reducing staff because of their focus on Azure, resulting in staff reduction primary in the sales business. For the largest part this process is pretty much done at this point, but of course they won't go ahead now and rise their staff count again just the moment they are done with the reduction they initiated a few months before.
So....in other words, we all got ahead of ourselves with excitement? And im confused about Microsoft is looking to reduce headcount while hiring for game positions. They must have a hard immoveable cap number for new hires
Paul Thurott years ago when they laid of the 7000 employees around time of getting out of the phone business, he stated pay standardisation killed the creativity tin MS. Not that they have got rid of pay standardisation so forces MS to rely on contract workers which are cheaper. It should be the management of each division that sets the pay scale.
Also if MS wanted to announce they bought out a company or a new studio they are creating they would. Because the jobs were in sales. They wouldn't because MS pay out too high salaries in the game side and that is due to pay standardisation.
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You are probably talking about this lay-off wave which is long done. Again, I don't see what this has to do with "pay standardization" or any of the things I said. Microsoft won't go ahead and cut the salaries of their existing staff.
The phone division was less creative and due to the fact they high salaries and weren't scrappy enough to take on Google/Apple. Same is now true for the studios if you are hiring exceptional talent and have them on a salary which is on average 10-20% more than the rest of the industry you are going to be less creative and less productive.
Plus you state MS would not create 1000+ jobs for the Studios if MS were on the verge of buying a Rockstar or a Bethesda do you think MS would care that they just laid off 10% of the workforce and feel guilty about creating more jobs - because they wouldn't.
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I mean that's a lot of assumptions - and that's alright. I tried to focus on the facts we have though. This has nothing to do with "feeling guilty" but having a responsibility towards your personnel and company as a whole. If you think Microsoft Studios will grow by 1,000+ positions I think you will be disappointed.
I'm sorry, I don't understand the "less creative" part of your post.
I think they need to and stop relying on contract studios. They have to be able to buy and create game development studios, The best independent developers cable of producing AAA is a list getting shorter by the day and they don't want to contract work. You would never see the likes of 4A or CD Projekt Red doing contract work for example. If you think MS can coast on the studios they have now and global publishing for the next generation ... well then maybe MS needs new management.
For example if I'm a game designer I don't have to use my best ideas that could subvert Halo and make it more interesting, why do I need to when I would be getting a paycheck 15% higher than my peers in other companies in the industry, who have to continually have to create new design mechanics to get noticed.
You want to keep your job though. You can always be replaced by someone else
They are in their "PS2" stage. Some good studios with talent, still relying on third parties for exclusives, in this case their own IP instead of defacto stuff like GTA. Problem is they should be in their ps3 stage where they seeing progress in quantity and quality of games. I owned a ps3 last gen, I could not recommend one based on just first party output alone. This gen I can recommend a ps4 just on first party, Nintendo I have been able to recommend based on first party geez probably their whole existence (WiiU aberration), I could not recommend an x1 based just on first party studios/games
Which means MS needs to open the checkbook buy and create a boatload of studios hopefully let these Studio heads set the payscales and go.
As a quick example, Sony bought suckerpunch during the early days of ps3
Good post, but can I see this source for Xbox Growth team? I keep reading that everywhere but when I google Xbox growth team nothing comes up.
This whole "underpaying your employees makes them work better" thing is a fascinating line of argument. Should they be allowed to eat cake, too?
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/job/424345/Senior-Software-Engineer-Xbox-Growth
There is/was a couple of job postings for positions within the team, a growth team is a pretty common thing but a good sign.
It seems like the point of that team is trying to reach all of the gamers in the world on console, mobile, PC, web, VR, AR "and future platforms".
Like expanding Xbox (hence growth) to reach not just Xbox One owners but the entire population of gamers.
That being said, I hope it's not what Daniel Gallagher is leading.
"Paying your employees good salaries will make them lazy and uncreative"
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