Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

Deleted member 18951 · Jan 12, 2018

Did anyone watch Larry's podcast the other day on Mixer where Phil came on for like the last fifteen minutes? That's pretty much your format right there, just take out the what you been playing segment and a few other bits and replace them with new gameplay for up coming games and dev interviews and there's a format that would work. Fuck, they would just need to do it once a quarter for it to make a sizeable impact.

JINX · Jan 12, 2018

MS's best marketing has always been handheld by third parties anyway.

Samuel Tolbert · Jan 12, 2018

Zeta Ori said:
I don't buy that for one second.

ill go ahead and make a pretend MS direct right now:

*5 minutes for an introduction of some sort, maybe with a multi-game trailer in the style they have used before at E3 before a brief introduction by Major Nelson/Phil Spencer
*10 minutes discussing Sea of Thieves with Rare developers and showing off what 1.0 will look like as well as some teasers for upcoming content given its status as a GAAS title
*10 minutes interviewing the BC team discussing their work, upcoming 360 enhanced games, and future OG Xbox releases
*10 minutes with the State of Decay 2 team showing actual gameplay and developer interviews
*5-10 minutes of the UI team discussing future updates including avatars, the career system, and visual changes
*2 minutes for a new Black Desert Online Xbox edition trailer showing off the console UI and visuals
*5-10 minutes of a small tease from 343i on Halo's future, as well as a look at the new MCC supposedly coming spring this year
*5 minutes for a look at The Coalitions future update plans for Gears 5
*3 minute Sizzle reel of upcoming indies, taking special care to focus on ones that were either console launch exclusive or are just now appearing on Xbox (like Soma)

And this is all stuff that is real, no rumors, and all supposedly coming before E3 this year.

Edit: And I completely forgot upcoming One X patches like Forza Horizon 3. That's their highest rated exclusive to date and one of their best sellers in this entire generation, it deserves more than a blog post saying the update is out and what it is.

100% agree. Stuff like that, even if it was just two times a year, would help get fans excited and build the relationship with the community.

EightBitNate · Jan 12, 2018

Oluasc said:
https://www.facebook.com/microsoftstudios/posts/934133976743425

Oh shit didn't see this

CristianTheWriter · Jan 12, 2018

JINX said:
According to Alanah on the most recent Unlocked were they talk about the rumours in this thread, she says that she has heard from a friend in the industry who reports on leaks a lot that they have heard from two seperate sources about PD.

Sweet can't wait for Phantom Dust. :p

JINX · Jan 12, 2018

MS doesn't even need to necessarily have a normal direct, if they just did directs for games a month before they came out when they have already gone gold. That way they can show a ton off and go deep into the amount of content etc, have excitement around the game itself before launch. MS often relies too much on elements that are not the game itself to market it, like SLT got a Hot air balloon thing...

CristianTheWriter · Jan 12, 2018

JINX said:
MS doesn't even need to necessarily have a normal direct, if they just did directs for games a month before they came out when they have already gone gold. That way they can show a ton off and go deep into the amount of content etc, have excitement around the game itself before launch. MS often relies too much on elements that are not the game itself to market it, like SLT got a Hot air balloon thing...

It's funny that Microsoft makes these deals for third party exclusives for a year or so but doesn't market them at all. They basically just spend money to call it exclusive at E3 and then never mention them again. These directs would be a good way to highlight them.

UraMallas · Jan 12, 2018

Carthago Delenda Est said:
I always like Project Forza Racing.

That's absolutely better and really should be the name if they decide on doing it. Nailed it.

zedox · Jan 12, 2018

I've been saying since Nintendo started doing their Direct that all the companies need to start doing that ish in their own way. For MS, it's so easy, you have Mixer. Call it the Xmix (Xbox, Xmix...) or whatever. You stream with the same format as the podcast but you have something initially to show. The next thing can be vote (mixer is interactive, get people to use it) as they are watching you talk about the features of the current game and you show it, and you have your "closer" announcement. It's really simple, it highlits Mixer features, interacting with the community, and gets the point across. I always get itturated with MS because they always have all the tools to do something great but they never do it or when they do, it's too late.

With my scenario above, you start off with news of upcoming X Enhanced games like FH3. Shoe it off and detail what features are coming. While that is up you have people vote:
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3
State of Decay 2

After people vote for those games and you get updates on them, you can make new announcements and then finish it off. Interactive, Simple, Good. But as Zeta said, it won't happen.

Poodlestrike · Jan 12, 2018

zedox said:
I've been saying since Nintendo started doing their Direct that all the companies need to start doing that ish in their own way. For MS, it's so easy, you have Mixer. Call it the Xmix (Xbox, Xmix…) or whatever. You stream with the same format as the podcast but you have something initially to show. The next thing can be voted on by the users (mixer is interactive, get people to use it) as they are watching you talk about the features of the current game and you show it, and you have your "closer" announcement. It's really simple, it highlights Mixer features, interacting with the community, and gets the point across. I always get irritated with Microsoft because they always have all the tools to do something great but they never do it or when they do, it's too late.
With my scenario above, you start off with news of upcoming X enhanced games like Forza Horizon 3. Show it off and detail what features are coming. While that is up you have people vote:
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3
State of Decay

After people vote for those games and you get updates on them, you can make new announcements and then finish it off. Interactive, Simple, Good. But as Zeta said, it won't happen.

The fuck kinda serif-ass font is this

Synth · Jan 12, 2018

Poodlestrike said:
The fuck kinda serif-ass font is this

I was tempted to report the post.

rtv190 · Jan 12, 2018

Kaironaut said:
That worked somehow. Thanks. Back to editing.

yea, just ping me if you need help editing again

GringoSuave89 · Jan 12, 2018

ugggh, sarif font on a webpage. my eyes!!!!

Zeta Ori · Jan 12, 2018

zedox said:
I've been saying since Nintendo started doing their Direct that all the companies need to start doing that ish in their own way. For MS, it's so easy, you have Mixer. Call it the Xmix (Xbox, Xmix…) or whatever. You stream with the same format as the podcast but you have something initially to show. The next thing can be voted on by the users (mixer is interactive, get people to use it) as they are watching you talk about the features of the current game and you show it, and you have your "closer" announcement. It's really simple, it highlights Mixer features, interacting with the community, and gets the point across. I always get irritated with Microsoft because they always have all the tools to do something great but they never do it or when they do, it's too late.
With my scenario above, you start off with news of upcoming X enhanced games like Forza Horizon 3. Show it off and detail what features are coming. While that is up you have people vote:
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3
State of Decay

After people vote for those games and you get updates on them, you can make new announcements and then finish it off. Interactive, Simple, Good. But as Zeta said, it won't happen.

In all seriousness though, that would be a great idea.

Poodlestrike · Jan 12, 2018

Zeta Ori said:
In all seriousness though, that would be a great idea.

What's it say?

I can't get through it.

JINX · Jan 12, 2018

zedox said:
I've been saying since Nintendo started doing their Direct that all the companies need to start doing that ish in their own way. For MS, it's so easy, you have Mixer. Call it the Xmix (Xbox, Xmix…) or whatever. You stream with the same format as the podcast but you have something initially to show. The next thing can be voted on by the users (mixer is interactive, get people to use it) as they are watching you talk about the features of the current game and you show it, and you have your "closer" announcement. It's really simple, it highlights Mixer features, interacting with the community, and gets the point across. I always get irritated with Microsoft because they always have all the tools to do something great but they never do it or when they do, it's too late.
With my scenario above, you start off with news of upcoming X enhanced games like Forza Horizon 3. Show it off and detail what features are coming. While that is up you have people vote:
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3
State of Decay

After people vote for those games and you get updates on them, you can make new announcements and then finish it off. Interactive, Simple, Good. But as Zeta said, it won't happen.

Nightengale · Jan 12, 2018

Don't edit your font colour and text, please.

UraMallas · Jan 12, 2018

I must have some sort of smart computer because it make the text normal for me unless you quote it.

roycy · Jan 12, 2018

Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

Zvonimir Boban · Jan 12, 2018

roycy said:
Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

As far as I'm aware there's no evidence of that, no.

GamerDude · Jan 12, 2018

These rumors sound awesome...I just wish Fable wasn't so far off. That's the one I can't wait to play.

UraMallas · Jan 12, 2018

roycy said:
Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

Brand new to me. What link do you have?

To me, it sounds like the game wasn't good enough and MS said 'we good'. Nothing more sinister.

zedox · Jan 12, 2018

Nightengale said:
Don't edit your font colour and text, please.

i didn't mean to. Some weird shit happened. I'll try to fix it. My bad guys.

ConHaki66 · Jan 13, 2018

roycy said:
Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

I dont think thats true, during the cancellation last year, some people speculated that Platinum working on so many things and having stuff like Neir being in a so much more advance state might have been one of the reasons for Microsofts decision.

Zeta Ori · Jan 13, 2018

Zvonimir Boban said:
As far as I'm aware there's no evidence of that, no.

No evidence is correct.

But...

I promised myself I would just let this go because it can't be proven one way or the other but, if you must know:

https://www.resetera.com/posts/129068/

Edit: Afaik that's the most information pertaining to the games cancellation we have to date. Doesn't clear anything up, but it shows there were whispers.

litebrite · Jan 13, 2018

Zeta Ori said:
No evidence is correct.

But...

I promised myself I would just let this go because it can't be proven one way or the other but, if you must know:

https://www.resetera.com/posts/129068/

Thanks. First I heard of it. We'll probably get the real story 5 to 10 years from now.

roycy · Jan 13, 2018

Well this may not be the first time.

https://www.google.com/search?q=microsoft funds ps3 development

zedox · Jan 13, 2018

Fixed that post.

Iichter · Jan 13, 2018

roycy said:
Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

We simply don't know what really happened, but it wouldn't surprise me that it was MS that fucked it up (just because their history of fuck ups is getting too big). Moreover the cancellation of Scalebound caused Platinum Games to be in bad shape and the success of NieR: Automata saved PG according to Kamiya (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...aved-platinumgames-according-to-hideki-kamiya).

And it was Fable Legends that costed MS $75M -another game they mismanaged, forcing Lionhead to do it instead of a classical but ambitious Fable IV, it wasn't Spencer's call but still-, it would be too much of a coincidence if Scalebound costed the same price.

Rychu · Jan 13, 2018

Even though Microsoft is doing the "not announcing games too early approach", I feel like they might announce Fable with a logo and CG trailer with "In Development" just to tell people that they have an open world RPG in the works and hype people up. The rest of the stuff will all come out this year or next year but I think they could make an exception for Fable just because a lot of people are salty still about the Lionhead closure and all of the rumors. The Scalebound cancellation, the success of Zelda and HZD and the people worrying about Fable being dead just piles on top of that.

Microsoft can put all of that to rest by saying hey it's in development, Playground is making it, we won't be showing any of the game (so they can show actual polished gameplay and the game doesn't look like crap and leave a bad impression) for a couple years but please look forward to it.

What do you guys think?

Dyashen · Jan 13, 2018

Rychu said:
Even though Microsoft is doing the "not announcing games too early approach", I feel like they might announce Fable with a logo and CG trailer with "In Development" just to tell people that they have an open world RPG in the works and hype people up. The rest of the stuff will all come out this year or next year but I think they could make an exception for Fable just because a lot of people are salty still about the Lionhead closure and all of the rumors. The Scalebound cancellation, the success of Zelda and HZD and the people worrying about Fable being dead just piles on top of that.

Microsoft can put all of that to rest by saying hey it's in development, Playground is making it, we won't be showing any of the game (so they can show actual polished gameplay and the game doesn't look like crap and leave a bad impression) for a couple years but please look forward to it.

What do you guys think?

Possible, but it also depends at what development they currently are for the Fable project. They did the same thing however last year for Age of Empires 4 and that got positive reception. In Unlocked's podcast with Phil, he said that they wanted to show stuff when they are close to release (<1year) so they wouldn't get development issues like Codename Kingdoms (Ryse) or Scalebound. However, i'm pretty sure that the relationship with Playground is great mostly because of their track record with games and they could make an exception for this.

roycy said:
Is it true that Platinum Games were pulling a gearbox on Microsoft? That is, they purposefully kept delaying Scalebound so they could just get more money from ms and fund other games? And it costed ms $75m?

Jez said something similar and also a guy from TiC podcast, don't know how credible their insiders are but that's two different sources who said the same thing. I'm pretty sure they just weren't able to meet deadlines and that's probably what caused the delays. Both Microsoft and Platinum possibly fucked up and i don't like we should put one on a pedestal and the other should get all the blame. I'm happy Platinum is still around and hope that someday we'll get a new Platinum (or Kamiya) game on Xbox whether it's a multiplat or an exclusive.

Chettlar · Jan 13, 2018

Hadn't we heard for a while now that Microsoft wasn't canceling Phantom Dust completely? Just putting that particular project on hold due to like budget or something? My memory is fuzzy.

zedox said:
i didn't mean to. Some weird shit happened. I'll try to fix it. My bad guys.

Liar. You hate us. How dare you.

Zeta Ori said:
https://www.resetera.com/posts/129068/

Whoa. I missed this. Huh. That's a real shame if so. The motivation is there for Platinum to do that, but that's not something I want to believe about them, at least.

Black Mantis · Jan 13, 2018

Rychu said:
Even though Microsoft is doing the "not announcing games too early approach", I feel like they might announce Fable with a logo and CG trailer with "In Development" just to tell people that they have an open world RPG in the works and hype people up. The rest of the stuff will all come out this year or next year but I think they could make an exception for Fable just because a lot of people are salty still about the Lionhead closure and all of the rumors. The Scalebound cancellation, the success of Zelda and HZD and the people worrying about Fable being dead just piles on top of that.

Microsoft can put all of that to rest by saying hey it's in development, Playground is making it, we won't be showing any of the game (so they can show actual polished gameplay and the game doesn't look like crap and leave a bad impression) for a couple years but please look forward to it.

What do you guys think?

Bad idea, they should stick to what PS said and hold off from any reveals until it's a year or so from release.

GUNDAM STARDUST · Jan 13, 2018

CristianTheWriter said:
Sweet can't wait for Phantom Dust. :p

Moonlight Sonata or bust. Phantom Dust was great.

Deleted member 18951 · Jan 13, 2018

I dont think Platinum were doing anything shady, i just think the game had too lofty ambitions for them and it wasn't coming together. Sucks, but that's game development for you.

Theorry · Jan 13, 2018

JINX said:
According to Alanah on the most recent Unlocked were they talk about the rumours in this thread, she says that she has heard from a friend in the industry who reports on leaks a lot that they have heard from two seperate sources about PD.

I mean i like the guys and girl what they do. But when you make a podcast and have a section about the rumours. Then have a full list of all the rumours and be correct about them.
They have so much wrong about the rumours etc. I finally was done when they said that Playground was on a hire spree and got "i wish i looked this up" and that they got someone who worked on Horizon Zero Dawn.
I mean come on. This how bad info starts.

Klobrille · Jan 13, 2018

Crackdown 3 100% will release. The game had a shit ton of play session logs - both for Arena and the main game. All these additional months of dev time will be great for the end result.

I totally expect this game to please the fans. It's your typical "average metacritic yet instant fan classic" title.

Samuel Tolbert · Jan 13, 2018

Rychu said:
Even though Microsoft is doing the "not announcing games too early approach", I feel like they might announce Fable with a logo and CG trailer with "In Development" just to tell people that they have an open world RPG in the works and hype people up. The rest of the stuff will all come out this year or next year but I think they could make an exception for Fable just because a lot of people are salty still about the Lionhead closure and all of the rumors. The Scalebound cancellation, the success of Zelda and HZD and the people worrying about Fable being dead just piles on top of that.

Microsoft can put all of that to rest by saying hey it's in development, Playground is making it, we won't be showing any of the game (so they can show actual polished gameplay and the game doesn't look like crap and leave a bad impression) for a couple years but please look forward to it.

What do you guys think?

Was actually talking with some friends about this very thing.

I absolutely agree, with the caveat that what they show depends on how far along development is. For example, they might even show an in-engine trailer rather than just a logo.

I know Phil doesn't like announcing games far out but Playground Games has a history of quality and meeting their time schedules, so it makes sense to trust them, announce it and then let that hype build for however long.

Theorry · Jan 13, 2018

Klobrille said:
Crackdown 3 100% will release. The game had a shit ton of play session logs - both for Arena and the main game. All these additional months of dev time will be great for the end result.

I totally expect this game to please the fans. It's your typical "average metacritic yet instant fan classic" title.

Oh yeah CD will release. No other way arround that.
I think the delay was fine. Extra dev time isnt bad and Q4 was way to packed. They Loftis stuff also hinted at that.
Cant wait to see and play the Wrecking Zone stuff.

"However, we want to make sure to deliver the right game, with the right quality, and at the right time. Crackdown 3 is a hugely ambitious game and we want to ensure we deliver the right experiences all the way through every part of the game, whether that's campaign, co-op multiplayer or our competitive multiplayer mode, Wrecking Zone. Getting the balance right between the three modes is important, and we are going to take the extra development time to ensure that. Gamers can expect Crackdown 3 in Spring of 2018."

"Crackdown 3 is an incredibly ambitious project that pushes the technological envelope with immersive true 4K gameplay, cloud-computing competitive multiplayer and a sprawling and futuristic open world," Loftis said when asked about the challenges the development teams have faced over the years. "The team has been working extremely hard to deliver a great experience for fans and this extra time will help us do just that."

flkRaven · Jan 13, 2018

Nightengale said:
Don't edit your font colour and text, please.

I thought we just couldn't use red. All formatting is not allowed?

Startropper · Jan 13, 2018

Crackdown 3 presented very poorly at e3, if the game had released last year it probably would have bombed. They need to use this e3 to re-reveal the game in a more polished state. Even then, I don't know how much Microsoft invested in this game, hopefully it gains some sort of interest.

Scalebound is not happening, the trademark was extended by Microsoft so no one else could use that property.

The facebook post by MS does not mean a direct. If they were having a sort of direct they would have announced a date and not been so cryptic. A highly more likely scenario, more of their published games are about to have info drop and this falls directly in tangent with Undead Labs teasing SOD2 info.

I firmly believe the new Fable will not be getting a cgi trailer reveal. We've seen more and more publishers move away from this for a reason. I think the reveal will see it have an extensive gameplay reveal, showing off beautiful graphics and polished world like HZD was.

Theorry · Jan 13, 2018

I am pretty sure it will be out before E3.

Nightengale · Jan 13, 2018

flkRaven said:
I thought we just couldn't use red. All formatting is not allowed?

It was some sort of technical error in this case but the formatting that happened in that post made every font way larger , and was not legible in light theme at all.

flkRaven · Jan 13, 2018

Nightengale said:
It was some sort of technical error in this case but the formatting that happened in that post made every font way larger , and was not legible in light theme at all.

Ah, makes sense.

LoyalPhoenix · Jan 13, 2018

I honestly see all the major announced titles aka sea of thieves, crackdown and State of Decay 2 releasing before E3.

Major dump of new sometime mid March with e3 focused on the rest of the year and spring 2019.

Theorry · Jan 13, 2018

They are all at Spring i believe? Wich runs from March 20th (Sea of Thieves release) until June 21th with E3 being June 12th.
Dont think they will release anything close to E3. So March, April, May. Would be great if we got 1 game each month.

zedox · Jan 13, 2018

LoyalPhoenix said:
I honestly see all the major announced titles aka sea of thieves, crackdown and State of Decay 2 releasing before E3.

Major dump of new sometime mid March with e3 focused on the rest of the year and spring 2019.

That's exactly what i think they are trying to do. They'll release those three games for spring. At e3, deep dive into Ori 2, FH4, or any other game they have. Then tease spring '19 games and maybe a fall/summer game (like they did Ori). 18 month update is fine with me. I don't need 2-3 year pipeline.

LoyalPhoenix · Jan 13, 2018

zedox said:
That's exactly what i think they are trying to do. They'll release those three games for spring. At e3, deep dive into Ori 2, FH4, or any other game they have. Then tease spring '19 games and maybe a fall/summer game (like they did Ori). 18 month update is fine with me. I don't need 2-3 year pipeline.

Same. E3 is great imo when it's things I'll play within a year of the show with just a hint of future stuff like holiday next year.

CalamityPixel · Jan 13, 2018

MS need a good direct to get people hyped for their spring line up. Just do a 10 min livestream and put in a teaser for a new game to get people hyped to watch the stream.

They can't rely on E3 anymore.

LoyalPhoenix · Jan 13, 2018

Theorry said:
They are all at Spring i believe? Wich runs from March 20th (Sea of Thieves release) until June 21th with E3 being June 12th.
Dont think they will release anything close to E3. So March, April, May. Would be great if we got 1 game each month.

Wouldn't surprise me. Thats what they usually do. The order I think will be SOT,CD,SOD2 that would move nicely to E3 the month after with Ori in August and Forza Horizon 4 in September. This year is going to be great already and we still don't know the holiday titles.

Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

Should we move to a new OT?

Yes

No

Wait until a couple weeks before E3

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