Lmao. I think gamepass is amazing value and i am currently subbed it to myself.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Xbox Game Studios |OT5| The Cult of Phil in the Age of Booty: A Case Study
- Thread starter Figments
- Start date
- Status
Lmao. I think gamepass is amazing value and i am currently subbed it to myself.
I used to do that because I don't have an Xbox but now that it's got an official Game Pass version for PC I expect to stick around. You're right about the too good to be true attitude, that's why they also add the fear mongering about the demise of the industry if this takes off.
It always depends on the implementation, and some of the frustrating aspects can also affect "proper" stealth games, but it's less likely to happen than with games where stealth is just a simplified optional mechanic. Implementing stealth means opening a whole new can of worms, there are so many things that can go wrong and either annoy the player or break immersion, and expose inner workings of the game.
For instance, you can expect to be less visible in dark places, only to find out that you're not. You can have enemies that are too smart, and once you're exposed, everyone will instantly home in on you, perhaps never losing sight of you again. You can have neverending respawn waves once the alarms have been turned on. You can have enemies that are too dumb, and won't notice dead bodies lying everywhere. Or maybe they will, but you'll be given no option to hide the bodies or dispose of them in any way. Or contextual takedown prompts will be poorly implemented, causing you to fail where you have succeeded before.
Perhaps enemies will be too easily distracted by throwing random objects, repeatedly. Or they will be in pursuit, but instantly lose sight of you when you enter tall grass and crouch. Or you will stealth kill one of them, while others standing mere feet away won't notice. Or you could have supposedly deaf enemies, but once you make a loud noise, they'll home in, not giving you the opportunity to quietly move out of the way. Or zones of detection will be made obvious by the fact that you can make any loud noise as soon as you step out of the zone, and enemies won't react, even though they should.
So, so many things that can go wrong, diminishing the overall experience, and for what? To mark that checkbox, and add more poorly handled complexity, as if more complex necessarily equals better.
I think that Quantum Break could've done a lot more with the puzzle aspects of time manipulation, rather than stealth.
Oh, you mean the normal employees in military-grade armor and super suits? The ones with guns? That have received permission to use lethal force? And won't even think about killing you the second they see you?
Netflix has about 150 Mio subscribers. If Game Pass (+ Ultimate) can only achieve 1/5 of this towards mid/end of next-gen they will make multiple times the money they ever could compared to normal game releases. If they achieve getting to this point they theoretically could sell 0 units of their games while still being considered huge successes, although some people might need longer to see this change in the industry than others. Xbox future is defined by Game Pass. This is where the money is.
30 million subs is a lot. If they can pull it off, phew....
It will only work with content, marketing, content, marketing, content, marketing and a ton of content. And they know that, which is why they added 9 studios in the last 12 months alone and they doesn't seem to stop there. With so many studios, the original content will come by default over time. The initial investments in such a service are -huge-, just like Netflix in its first years, but if you keep pulling through, it will pay off in the long run.
I think that it is an achievable number, but Microsoft will seriously need to pull a rabbit of their hat and come up with something crazy. Maybe that's Playground's RPG project or the Initiative's project completely blowing up, but I still don't think that's enough. I personally think they would need more, but 30 million subs is a crazy number.
I doubt Microsoft would ever buy Remedy. They're seemingly interested in studios that can release a game every 2-4 years, and while Remedy has said that they've made the necessary changes to rectify their extremely long development cycles - it remains to be seen if that's true. In a decade long partnership, Microsoft was able to get two games and an expansion pack from them.
with gamepass games wont financially flop for xbox and as people have said..all the work is on marketing,reach and content for the services to reach its anticipated heights...its interesting
It's a little early to be marketing Gears 5. I'm sure it will come.
I mean, the game is ten weeks away. If you're not marketing it now, I'm not sure when you're going to.
They did a bunch of marketing at E3. They've already showed their plan for additional marketing for enthusiasts throughout the summer.
But mainstream media? Within 30 days (or less, probably 2 weeks). The general public doesn't have the attention span for marketing 10 weeks in advance.
Been saying this for long. They are building an incredible studio portfolio and striking third party deals everywhere, both triple-A and the ID@Xbox stuff. They can add a dozen or more new games every month, each month containing at least one heavy hitter that you'd otherwise find for 35 Euros at least, along with every couple months a huge Xbox Original game: be that Gears, Halo, Forza, Perfect Dark, Fable or a new IP altogether. If enough gamers are subscribed each month (in that sense, having 10 people sub for 1 month each is not much different from 1 person subbing for 10 months), they risk nothing with game releases because their costs are more than covered by the subs - and they still sell their games digitally and through retail, not to mention the MTXs and DLCS.
Game Pass is here to stay, and it's clear why it's a profitable model: that is if they manage to have the numbers, of course, and we don't know what those are. Don't quote me on this but between the rumblings I've been getting from devs and press, I get the impression that the recent deals, the E3 effect and such may have pushed Game Pass subs over the 10m milestone, but nobody at Microsoft is gonna give you those numbers even under torture.
I don't know, to me you just listed a bunch of different ways you can approach stealth in terms of design, not all problematic issues in and of themselves. It's a balancing act at the end of the day, and utmost realism of the kind you're alluding to with some of your points would likely not be fun anyway.
Some of the same AI response, awareness, repetitious pathfinding conundrums etc exist in Quantum Break (and other TPS) with gunplay too, and then there's issues around cover systems, obstacle detection and more. By your logic they ought to do away with the gunplay altogether because of these minor inconveniences or design decisions? Much like with stealth lite, the reality is its just a case of adjusting to said mechanics, and for many there will still be plenty of fun and diversity to be had.
Also, rarely have I personally ever had issues with stealth lite in most tentpole titles, in fact, just like gunplay, melee and any other game mechanic (which rarely follow lifelike physics or parameters), once you actually learn the mechanics or systems within a game, it's not difficult to work around said parameters.
Yep. Thats why i've been talking they need to pump up that marketing to their games. That is best way to market gamepass. Hell marketing gears 5 being on gamepass now can already bring people to service.
Yea pretty much. 10 weeks out is way too early to start heavily marketing. Consistently dropping content through sites like IGN before they start advertising harder closer to release is a smart way to keep people engaged.
It's a Gears staple so I assume so; I am kind of worried the Kait trailer might be their spin on it though. As a whole, Epic's trailers were way better than what we've seen from The Coalition so far; I can't recall a bad trailer for the original trilogy.
Gears 5 launches near the start of the NFL season and you can bet every commercial break during them games will be gamepass and Gears
i add one more option, gears 5 still very much is a gears game and, at least on the surface, looks like more of the same (something 4 was criticized for)
30 mln active Game Pass subscriptions? I can see that if Microsoft will keep the paca and quality of updating the service with new games. Like in the last 6 months we got Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Just Cause 4 and Metro: Exodus just 2 or 3 months after they were released. And those are AAA quality titles, even more, high profile ones.
Yes, even without stealth, there are already numerous plates to juggle, and thus by my logic, introducing more complexity when there's no need for it is not a way to go. Again, I never once felt that more stealth than what was already in the game would've improved Quantum Break in any meaningful capacity, considering what its core design principles were.
Games having focus is a good thing. Layering various popular gameplay elements on top of one another just to have them around, i.e. "to add more options" (while perhaps not developing them sufficiently) ultimately results in a bunch of different games that all feel kind of the same to play.
I often find games where I feel like certain elements - crafting is another popular one in recent times - feel grafted on with not enough thought given to their inclusion. They just feel off. But hey, it's perfectly cool if you don't.
I did not.
Regardless, that's wasted money on a title like that.
I've been talking about how people think with gamepass, games don't need good marketing for a while now, but my words get brushed of " nah, it'll still get played by everyone it doesn't matter". But what about the people who don't use gamepass, or won't use it, like the steam community, it STILL needs to be marketed to the people who prefer to buy their games.
Hmmm maybe not. Days Gone became a hugeeeeee seller for Sony. It is a successful new IP. We will def see a sequel down the line.
Marketing helps A lot!
I'd certainly argue that not enough time has passed to make that call. Square and Xbox didn't have the best relationship at the start of this gen, but those FF ports are proof that it's building. It could very well be the case that Square just didn't want to expand the scope of their projects prior to launch.
We saw this with a number of Switch ports that came after the fact. People freaked out about game X skipping the platform at initial launch, only for it to be ported 6 months to a year later.
You also have to take into account that Days Gone was a brand new IP that Sony was trying to establish, it needed that heavy marketing. Anyways, Gears 5 is being marketed and will continue to be marketed.
I hope they do it! Make it big!
Shadow and Just Cause flopped on sales. Exodus sold well. Didn't they have marketin deals etc with Microsoft? Maybe that helped to get on gamepass so early.
But i can def see more 3rd party titles getting on gamepass if they flop on sales. And games like metro where Microsoft just pays to them.
I also think of this when considering GAMEPASS
These studios are not tied to ensure they meet "sales" expectations and sell "millions" in order to be green for some type of metric or goal. Or labeled as success in Xbox anymore. Sure, it matters that they sell copies, but i beleive the main thing they are being measured by is to ensure they are making games to keep subscribers in GAMEPASS. That is their priority now. To build this subscription service and BUILD onto this. Xcloud is something you see directly related to the existence of Gamepass. i dont think they are even done with announcing what they have planned next as services related to the xbox platform. I always repeat this, but they mentioned 5G for a reason. This seems like another moment in time they will announce a new service or capability with their services.
I can already imagine on the stage of a samsung galaxy presser and have a note about being able to play Xbox Games on your mobile device if you are subscribed to gamepass ultimate. or something of that sort.
well that is what i get from all of the vibes i see in every new Xbox Game Studio mention/comment/tweet/article/interview. It feels like a different vs about only meeting numbers when a game launches. I'm not saying that isn't important but i recognize a change and this change is welcoming to me.
To think, if we had this type of culture when we had Jade Empire, Perfect Dark, Kameo, Conker, Brute Force, Mech Assault and etc etc, the list can go one and one.. we probably would still have some newer versions of them in the pipeline. Maybe some would have turned into GAAS, maybe some into episodic, maybe just chapters being released by small passionate teams who want to keep that universe alive.
am i overthinking this? probably, but its because i have hope.
These studios are not tied to ensure they meet "sales" expectations and sell "millions" in order to be green for some type of metric or goal. Or labeled as success in Xbox anymore. Sure, it matters that they sell copies, but i beleive the main thing they are being measured by is to ensure they are making games to keep subscribers in GAMEPASS. That is their priority now. To build this subscription service and BUILD onto this. Xcloud is something you see directly related to the existence of Gamepass. i dont think they are even done with announcing what they have planned next as services related to the xbox platform. I always repeat this, but they mentioned 5G for a reason. This seems like another moment in time they will announce a new service or capability with their services.
I can already imagine on the stage of a samsung galaxy presser and have a note about being able to play Xbox Games on your mobile device if you are subscribed to gamepass ultimate. or something of that sort.
well that is what i get from all of the vibes i see in every new Xbox Game Studio mention/comment/tweet/article/interview. It feels like a different vs about only meeting numbers when a game launches. I'm not saying that isn't important but i recognize a change and this change is welcoming to me.
To think, if we had this type of culture when we had Jade Empire, Perfect Dark, Kameo, Conker, Brute Force, Mech Assault and etc etc, the list can go one and one.. we probably would still have some newer versions of them in the pipeline. Maybe some would have turned into GAAS, maybe some into episodic, maybe just chapters being released by small passionate teams who want to keep that universe alive.
am i overthinking this? probably, but its because i have hope.
The only ad with any Days Gone content that I can find from 6 months prior to the game's release is this overall "Wake Up" Playstation 4 ad that they ran for the holiday 2018 season.
Microsoft ran this ad for the holidays.
I'm ok with this. :-)
I'm with you but they better hurry. At least give me 2 more medium or 1 big studio by the end of 2019
I don't think if a game isn't selling
well they call up Microsoft and say hey put me on gamepass. I think that deal is made with the marketing rights are negociated. I believe Microsoft marketed shadow, exoudus, just cause, even Monster Hunter I think. What else did they market it fallout 76?
Last edited:
Pretty sure we'll get 1 or 2 announcement s at X019. The mandate is simple really they need a really big catalogue of high quality developers to entice gamers.
If anything their metrics for sales as opposed to what they need now are more difficult to achieve, they need critical darlings in that service.
So it begins. I hope these dip into a Rare IP at some point, they'd make an amazing Conker game imo.
Man I love Double-Fine and Tim's humour. Such a charming studio. Going to be a delight getting to see Tim doing the press circuit, and getting up on the Xbox stage in the coming years. His little Bit-piece with Booty at E3 this year was hilarious
Hadn't even thought of this, but Double-Fine would fit Conker like a glove. I'm going to be disappointed if this doesn't have now. Psychonauts 2 even has a lot of mechanical and stylistic overlap with Conker, that I'm sure many of the takeaways in developing Psychonauts 2 could carry forward into a Conker sequel.
Last edited:
sorry for the caps lock but i just wanted to say that
I WANT PSYCHONAUTS 2 SO DAMN MUCH
thanks for coming to my TED talk
I WANT PSYCHONAUTS 2 SO DAMN MUCH
thanks for coming to my TED talk
I'm reading through the Kotaku story about crunch at Treyarch which reminded me of several job postings for a Studios Quality team at MS. I can only find one job posting right now, but I have seen multiple postings, but i guess they expired. QA job posting
I'm hoping that with a centralized team that handles QA for all studios, then the team is more stable and they can be treated well since they can do testing for all of Xbox Game Studios and aren't just contractors for a particular game, though maybe I'm reaching.
Also there's a job posting dated June 15th for an Outsource Manager for The Initiative. Maybe they can keep a smaller number of core people and outsource the main work elsewhere. Outsource Manager job posting
I'm hoping that with a centralized team that handles QA for all studios, then the team is more stable and they can be treated well since they can do testing for all of Xbox Game Studios and aren't just contractors for a particular game, though maybe I'm reaching.
Also there's a job posting dated June 15th for an Outsource Manager for The Initiative. Maybe they can keep a smaller number of core people and outsource the main work elsewhere. Outsource Manager job posting
That Treyarch dig by Jason made me fucking furious
edit: as in fuck treyarch and activision ok
edit: as in fuck treyarch and activision ok
Last edited:
The need, or should I say, reason for it, is that countless people enjoy it, and appreciate the fact that it adds a different gameplay and tactical layer, that not only gives players more approach options, but something to reduce the monotony of what can sometimes feel like too much emphasis on the shooting side of things.
I appreciate you personally may not prefer it, but the poster in question seemed to think he would, and countless others very well might. Hell, you talk about having focus, but Quantum Break didn't exactly light the world on fire in terms of gamer or critical reception, so clearly there's a lot it could have improved and that it's focus missed the mark on. And who knows, maybe more mechincal options or tools might have helped?
Bear in mind, it could have still done a unique twist on stealth, eg time warp stealth similar to Titanfall 2 or something, where you could perhaps sneak around seemingly impossible scenarios by going back to a different time where no enemies were present, or a different set of enemies were present, and then warping back in to present time once you had the jump of an enemy, or something akin to that. There's so much that could be done with that sort of thing that I feel could have given the game more of an exciting and diverse edge.
Last edited:
- Status