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[Mass Effect]

I assume he was referring to last year's announcements

Correct.

You sure about that? Last i checked it was announced last year and we are going to see gameplay this year. You'd think they announced Scalebound for the 360 in 07' the way some people act.

Yeah, I'm sure. Announcing a game that is 2+ years out is a bit too early in my book. Plus not having any gameplay for over a year after announcement isn't helping.

I'm not really counting QB in this discussion because to be fair to the game, it was originally planned for 2014, but was delayed.

 

[Spottiettiedop]

What's the latest word on Joe Montana?

Is that really happening?

Would, in that case, Microsoft drop their focus on Madden? That rumor is still so very weird.

I'm beginning to wonder if this will come to fruition. If Montana is done right and releases 2015, I think that would be a bigger deal than a game released in 2016

 

[Poodlestrike]

What's the latest word on Joe Montana?

Is that really happening?

Would, in that case, Microsoft drop their focus on Madden? That rumor is still so very weird.

IIRC, Montana himself tweeted about visiting the MS campus, so it's almost certainly happening. I doubt they'll have the NFL license, though. My money is on it being a PC/X1 release, with cross-play, cross-saves, and maybe cross-buy. Though that last one is a lot less likely.

 

[hawk2025]

IIRC, Montana himself tweeted about visiting the MS campus, so it's almost certainly happening. I doubt they'll have the NFL license, though. My money is on it being a PC/X1 release, with cross-play, cross-saves, and maybe cross-buy. Though that last one is a lot less likely.

But then do they keep advertising and bundling Madden?

Does that make sense?

 

[Troubled Bat]

Disappointed... I'm so looking forward to Scalebound.

 

[KORNdoggy]

I think the big difference is that this year Microsoft knows Sony is not going to be at Gamescom. When that announcement was made over a month ago, I'm sure a lot of thought was put into how to take advantage of that fact over at Microsoft. And if I were in their position, I'd have concluded the precise same thing: this is a chance to steal weeks of publicity for second tier games in our lineup that otherwise might get drowned out because they're not quite the biggest franchises or they're new untested IPs or whatever. It's a net win. They can say something silently about Sony's games lineup while simultaneously giving these games huge breathing room to catch the public's eye.

There's also the double bonus of giving the big announcements they're going to have at E3 even more room to breath.

The success of the strategy of course will depend on multiple factors. For example, if they took these games out of E3 and moved them to Gamescom and as a result their E3 conference seems starved due to it, that would make this move a bit more debatable from a positive/negative standpoint. But I am pretty sure that won't be the case. Another factor will be just how well received these games finally are at Gamescom. If they get a lot of people talking it'll be huge, but if there's any disappointment in there it'll make it seem like a squandered opportunity.

Ultimately, though, I think this was the smart move. If I were in their position, I'd have done this and perhaps even moved some more big titles to Gamescom too. It really is a huge opportunity for MS to capitalize on a odd strategic absence on Sony's part.

Sony's strategy isn't so odd imo. Gamescom and E3 are aimed largely at the same audience. There isn't the cultural divide of say japan with TGS and US with E3 in regards to game announcements. And the time between E3 and gamescom are in too close proximity to make them both particularly worthwhile and doesn't really give enough time for say, a game that couldn't make June to meet crunch for august. Sony has 4 months until their own stand alone event in october. Building hype closer to the holidays, and giving their studio's more time to get something new to show that wasn't ready for E3.

I mean, it's going to suck that they're not having a conference at gamescom. But it will hopefully amount to more legitimately good surprises at their own show in paris. And the october timeframe will guarentee it's sony who gave the more relevant news leading up to christmas...

And currently MS's approach is both ruining surprises for gamescom (we now know a lot of games that will be there), and dampening hype for E3 (we know a bunch of games have been removed for the sake of gamescom)

I guess we'll see which stratagy pays off.

 

[Poodlestrike]

But then do they keep advertising and bundling Madden?

Does that make sense?

It does if you think there's room for two football games on the console. Plus, with Madden MIA on PC, that's a fresh market right there.

 

[hawk2025]

It does if you think there's room for two football games on the console. Plus, with Madden MIA on PC, that's a fresh market right there.

I don't, but we'll see!

I admit I don't really understand the market for american football videogames, though. But at least as far as Soccer goes, it seems like PES and Fifa have always fought tooth and nail for market share, as substitutes, not complements.

Unlike shooters or racers where you attract customers to your platform that sample multiple games on the same genre, it seems (to me, I could be totally off) that these two would VERY much eat into each other's demand.

 

[Kssio_Aug]

That's gonna be a pretty damn good conference, with lots of surprises, or a pretty weak one! Hopefully the former!

However, I won't be let down anyway since I'm sure we finally gonna see Halo 5 new gameplay content (other then the Beta) and the infos about Gears of War and Forza Motorsport 6.

 

[true Gek]

So glad that I will attend at the Gamescom as a Journalist even this year. In 2014 I went also to E3 and honestly the press area and the conferences were better organized in the german convention. Sad that Sony will skip it.

 

[abadguy]

Correct.



Yeah, I'm sure. Announcing a game that is 2+ years out is a bit too early in my book. Plus not having any gameplay for over a year after announcement isn't helping.

I'm not really counting QB in this discussion because to be fair to the game, it was originally planned for 2014, but was delayed.

They showed of a CG trailer of Sunset Overdrive and we got gameplay a year later. They showed Scalebound CG trailer last year and we get gameplay this year in tow months. Not seeing the problem. Maybe if they had announced Scalebound at the beginning of last gen and we were still waiting for it (like a couple of games i can think of), then i could see the "it was announced too early" argument and could maybe understand the overreaction in this thread.

 

[justsomeguy]

This almost guarantees amazing stuff at E3...this is awesome.

Yeah - it's pretty amazing if they can bump those. E3 must have something awesome. Or maybe it's a timing thing, 2015 games at e3, 2016 at gamescon

 

[Bsigg12]

So glad that I will attend at the Gamescom as a Journalist even this year. In 2014 I went also to E3 and honestly the press area and the conferences were better organized in the german convention. Sad that Sony will skip it.

You'll have to post impressions of all three of those games if they're available for you to play!

 

[Poodlestrike]

I don't, but we'll see!

I admit I don't really understand the market for american football videogames, though. But at least as far as Soccer goes, it seems like PES and Fifa have always fought tooth and nail for market share, as substitutes, not complements.

Unlike shooters or racers where you attract customers to your platform that sample multiple games on the same genre, it seems (to me, I could be totally off) that these two would VERY much eat into each other's demand.

The thing about the American Football market is that there's only really the one choice: Madden. Even the more out-there arcade options are more or less dead at this point. And Madden is... let's go with "less than universally loved." So there's a not-inconsiderable pool of people who're looking for something, anything else. And for PC exclusive types, there's not even that. So I'd say they've got room to do both, at least in the immediate future.

 

[sora87]

Damnit! Scalebound is literally the only thing they have that interests me.

 

[hawk2025]

The thing about the American Football market is that there's only really the one choice: Madden. Even the more out-there arcade options are more or less dead at this point. And Madden is... let's go with "less than universally loved." So there's a not-inconsiderable pool of people who're looking for something, anything else. And for PC exclusive types, there's not even that. So I'd say they've got room to do both, at least in the immediate future.

Or perhaps the market for other games is dead precisely because the demand only supports one, major, realistic game, and only on consoles?

I kinda hope Joe Montana Football is real (at this point, let's just say it is, there is way too much smoke) just to see how it does.

The alternative I see is that "Joe Montana" is something simply built into the Xbox version of Madden. Would that make any sense?

No, the market for other games is dead because EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL license. No one else can make NFL games, and a football game without the NFL or NCAA isn't that appealing.

So in comes Joe Montana Football with... no NFL license?

 

[Bessy67]

Or perhaps the market for other games is dead precisely because the demand only supports one, major, realistic game, and only on consoles?

No, the market for other games is dead because EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL license. No one else can make NFL games, and a football game without the NFL or NCAA isn't that appealing. IMO if (and that's a big if) MS got the NFL license and is making a NFL football game then it would be a pretty big deal.

So in comes Joe Montana Football with... no NFL license?

Yeah, it's most likely dead on arrival if it has no NFL license. But MS recently cut a huge check to the NFL and all we've seen of it so far is a NFL app and some surfaces on the sidelines, so there's at least a chance.

 

[hawk2025]

Ah, I see, it's not a foregone conclusion that Microsoft does not have the NFL license.

It may be the case that EA's exclusivity period has expired.

 

[Head.spawn]

If those games aren't at e3, I can't even begin to think about what they're actually going to show.

Clearly, Halo 5, Tomb Raider and Gears HD. Those are a given.

Fingers crossed for Season 3 of Killer Instinct, everything else will be the icing.

 

[BuffetChamp]

Keeping some of the goods back for August? Jesus the amount of killer games Microsoft must have under their belts,godamn. LOL. You can see what Phil's doing,he wants to keep the media curious and hyping Microsoft games all year long. Two big shows, filled with lots of games. That shit is genius.

 

[illmatic22]

First, we do know what Sony will show at their Gamescom conference. Nothing. A company who understands good strategy is one that plans for what they do know, not what they don't.

They don't know what Sony has at E3, but it's a fair bet they'll have some big announcements and some of them will surely drown out some of Microsoft's smaller announcements, just like some of Microsoft's big announcements will do the same to some smaller Sony announcements.

Games like Scalebound are big to us, but it's a Platinum Game... their titles never sell a huge amount relative to the 'big AAA' titles, and so it's the perfect game to debut at a show like Gamescom when Microsoft can depend on Sony not being there to drown it out. Similarly, Crackdown is on a AA tier of game judging by sales, which makes it yet another perfect candidate for a show to Microsoft's own. And Quantum Break is a brand new IP from Remedy who has been hit or miss with their games in terms of the attention/sales they've received, and the title has already had a huge coming out party multiple times... and it was also delayed out of 2015. It's yet another perfect candidate for a show to itself.

This is a brilliant strategy. It really, really is. They will have games at E3. Microsoft will have a packed show just like Sony. They will show their new Forza, their Gears of War Collection, and all sorts of surprises. They have big stuff in the pipe. And that will be at E3.

But then they smartly now have a huge summer show to themselves, where they can highlight their second tier of products without any of them being drowned out by overwhelming E3 press coverage of a billion different products.

I do the E3 summaries each year on NeoGAF, and the number of announcements each year is staggering. It's basically impossible to keep up with. Microsoft has in my estimation made a very very clever strategic move.

Surely this will turn the tide. Surely.

 

[Mass Effect]

They showed of a CG trailer of Sunset Overdrive and we got gameplay a year later. They showed Scalebound CG trailer last year and we get gameplay this year in tow months. Not seeing the problem. Maybe if they had announced Scalebound at the beginning of last gen and we were still waiting for it (like a couple of games i can think of), then i could see the "it was announced too early" argument and could maybe understand the overreaction in this thread.

"Overreaction," I made a one sentence post. It's a minor annoyance, not a world-ending event. Over a year without any gameplay following announcement + being > 2 years out is too early to me. It's just what I think.

This isn't exclusive to MS. EA is especially guilty of doing this last year and Sony used to be terrible at doing this (they've gotten a bit better though).

 

[FATALITY]

at first i thought "well ms is dumb" but than i realise that sony wont be there, so thats a good call

 

[IncognitoPanda]

Bittersweet news. I was really looking forward to finally seeing what Scalebound was.

It's also exciting to see what they fill all this vacuum with, but they sure have big shoes to fill

 

[Maximilian Kolbe]

If those games aren't at e3, I can't even begin to think about what they're actually going to show.

Clearly, Halo 5, Tomb Raider and Gears HD. Those are a given.

Fingers crossed for Season 3 of Killer Instinct, everything else will be the icing.

I remember Killer Instinct s2 showed in half hour before conference(that pre-conference show i forget the name), wonder they will do the same again this year.

 

[Amir0x]

Surely this will turn the tide. Surely.

Turn the tide, or give games they have paid money for a better shot at selling more and getting better exposure?

 

[Heigic]

2016 games shouldn't be at e3.

 

[Maximilian Kolbe]

For one thing we know is Toylogic(Happy Wars) maybe will take some Microsoft conference time to announce a new title, we don't know what it is though since they seems have 2 games making at the same time.

Okay cool notes today

Twisted Pixel working on "AAA" game

http://steverulez.com/?p=15808

Their team is really small so interesting.....

Toylogic (Happy Wars) is hiring for AAA RPG and next-gen multiplay action game. Also, they have a new game to be revealed at E3 MS booth

https://twitter.com/lifelower/status/605775575827947520
http://www.toylogic.com/index.html

Edit- Shocked I didn't see a thread on Toylogic, I mean a JP developer making AAA RPG. Gaf be slipping

 

[jbug617]

Official Twitter account for Scalebound
https://twitter.com/Scalebound

 

[Sydle]

Keeping some of the goods back for August? Jesus the amount of killer games Microsoft must have under their belts,godamn. LOL. You can see what Phil's doing,he wants to keep the media curious and hyping Microsoft games all year long. Two big shows, filled with lots of games. That shit is genius.

I doubt it will be all games at E3. I think he has to spend some time talking up Xbox as a platform at E3 before Windows 10 launches in July.

I have a feeling there will be a significant Xbox Live portion elaborating on his GDC statements that Xbox consumers should now think of themselves as customers of Xbox Live and how that materializes across Windows 10 devices. What are the day one deliverables and what's on the roadmap?

He also has to make time for PC (he has to demonstrate they're serious this time) and HoloLens (why anyone should care). If they are partnered up with Oculus VR then I'd be surprised if they are not publishing an exclusive or two from third-party devs.

With all of that out of the way at E3, with 2 months for it to sink in and through the Windows 10 launch, then he and Kudo can focus on games for the Xbox platform at Gamescom.

 

[IncognitoPanda]

First, we do know what Sony will show at their Gamescom conference. Nothing. A company who understands good strategy is one that plans for what they do know, not what they don't.

They don't know what Sony has at E3, but it's a fair bet they'll have some big announcements and some of them will surely drown out some of Microsoft's smaller announcements, just like some of Microsoft's big announcements will do the same to some smaller Sony announcements.

Games like Scalebound are big to us, but it's a Platinum Game... their titles never sell a huge amount relative to the 'big AAA' titles, and so it's the perfect game to debut at a show like Gamescom when Microsoft can depend on Sony not being there to drown it out. Similarly, Crackdown is on a AA tier of game judging by sales, which makes it yet another perfect candidate for a show to Microsoft's own. And Quantum Break is a brand new IP from Remedy who has been hit or miss with their games in terms of the attention/sales they've received, and the title has already had a huge coming out party multiple times... and it was also delayed out of 2015. It's yet another perfect candidate for a show to itself.

This is a brilliant strategy. It really, really is. They will have games at E3. Microsoft will have a packed show just like Sony. They will show their new Forza, their Gears of War Collection, and all sorts of surprises. They have big stuff in the pipe. And that will be at E3.

But then they smartly now have a huge summer show to themselves, where they can highlight their second tier of products without any of them being drowned out by overwhelming E3 press coverage of a billion different products.

I do the E3 summaries each year on NeoGAF, and the number of announcements each year is staggering. It's basically impossible to keep up with. Microsoft has in my estimation made a very very clever strategic move.

This

Not to say that the conferences will necessarily knock it out of the park per se, but it is all about strategy, and going big with the biggest titles is a sure winner. Crackdown/Scalebound/Quantum Break seem like great titles, but to the public there is a danger they will be drowned out by all the other huge titles at E3. Gamescom is a quieter period that may also make a splash, and might be much healthier for said titles at the end of the day. As long as I get surprises at E3 I'm happy

 

[Remapped88]

Damn, really wanted to see Scalebound and Crackdown during their Press Conference . Really hope they have a few surprises up their sleeves if those big 3 games are gonna miss this E3.

 

[KooopaKid]

Huh ho. Was waiting to see more of Scalebound to decide whether to get an XBO or not. I guess not then.

 

[TharpDaddy]

Curious to see what they have to show at E3.

90 minutes of Halo, let's go!

 

[LegalEagleMike]

Huh ho. Was waiting to see more of Scalebound to decide whether to get an XBO or not. I guess not then.

Guess you will have to wait 2 months.

 

[expletive]

IIRC, Montana himself tweeted about visiting the MS campus, so it's almost certainly happening. I doubt they'll have the NFL license, though. My money is on it being a PC/X1 release, with cross-play, cross-saves, and maybe cross-buy. Though that last one is a lot less likely.

Microsoft has had a very close relationship with the NFL, i would not be surprised if they were able to get the license in the same way Sony has the MLB license for the show.

Spencer has already said that he is focusing E3 on first party this year. Pushing these 3 back to Gamescom strongly points towards more 1st party game reveals. Unless, of course, those comments were made before the decision to have CD,SB, and QB at Gamescom.

 

[Salty Hippo]

Surely this will turn the tide. Surely.

Surely it won't, so why even bother planning anything, right? I say they should pack it all up and shut off their entire Xbox business. The tide won't turn anyway, it's all pointless.

 

[abadguy]

Guess you will have to wait 2 months.

Seriously, you'd think it was cancelled.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This actually has me more excited for their press conference. It must mean they have a ton of stuff to show off.

Waiting another month(ish) for footage of these games is no big deal.

They do somewhat run the risk of being overshadowed by Sony at E3. But if they have big enough games to announce then both conferences (Sony and MS) should be able to have a successful E3.

 

[Grazzt]

Why so much hate?
These 3 games won't release during this year anyway. I can't see the difference if they show them now or two months later.

 

[Respawn]

Why do I feel these games weren't ready for E3? Ahh well must be some surprises in store.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Official Twitter account for Scalebound
https://twitter.com/Scalebound

God, I hope Kamiya takes over the account.

 

[Spyder_Monkey]

Official Twitter account for Scalebound
https://twitter.com/Scalebound

I'm convinced that this game was going to be shown at E3 (why else would they start the twitter account now, Platnium's presence at E3 anyway) but is being held off because reasons. But hey that's just a theory... a conspiracy theory.

 

[Bsigg12]

Why do I feel these games weren't ready for E3? Ahh well must be some surprises in store.

I don't think an additional month is gonna change too much. I'm sure they were ready to go but Microsoft seems like they're trying to spread their lineup out a little more.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

This actually has me more excited for their press conference. It must mean they have a ton of stuff to show off.

Waiting another month(ish) for footage of these games is no big deal.

They do somewhat run the risk of being overshadowed by Sony at E3. But if they have big enough games to announce then both conferences (Sony and MS) should be able to have a successful E3.

Spencer promised New IP. There is hope yet!

 

[Respawn]

MS' conference will be largely dedicated to hyping their Windows 10 connectivity stuff. Count on it.

If this is somehow true the melts will be epic

 

[The Artisan]

game of all time

 

[Skux]

We’ve decided to save some of our most eagerly-awaited future titles for gamescom in August.

Pretty sure that's the opposite of good marketing.

 

[rokkerkory]

I am ok with this

 

[gaming_noob]

Can we get some hints from Ntkrnl? He returned with a random post the other day...