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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

gamz

Member
Quite how rare survived all this time I'll never know. Kinect Sports mainly, I hope SOT does well for them

Those rare Kinect games I think sold a shit load if I remember right. They survived because the games sell and they are talented. Not hard to figure out.
 
It's for the best. With PUGB and everything else this Holiday it would've gotten slaughtered. Gives them more time to polish and a good release date.
I don't think extra time to polish the game is gonna do much, everything they've shown since the initial reveal has looked poor and lacking in focus.
 
MS isn't and wasn't ran like you think it is. For example not just shannon loftis reports to phil like many seem to think. Many studios have direct reporting studio heads that report to phil. Loftis deals mostly with 3rd party deals. Don was the boss you should be blaming his vision.

Phil Spencer became head of games in 2009. He became head of Xbox like three years ago.

This is all on him. Blaming Mattrick is ridiculous as it shows even since he has left the exclusive side has not improved. The exclusive side has been poor since 2009 when Phil took over.
 
Those rare Kinect games I think sold a shit load if I remember right. They survived because the games sell and they are talented. Not hard to figure out.

Viva piñata and banjo didn't do well, KSR did badly, being talented has never mattered to ms in the past.
 

blakep267

Member
Phil Spencer became head of games in 2009. He became head of Xbox like three years ago.

This is all on him. Blaming Mattrick is ridiculous as it shows even since he has left the exclusive side has not improved. The exclusive side has been poor since 2009 when Phil took over.
Mattrick was the boss during that time. Phil doesn't have autonomy to greenlight and cancel games. Just like Loftis doesn't now.
 
What lacked focus? Looked to me it just needed more polish. Dunno?
Half the trailer was Terry Crews yelling at a camera, and the other half was a bunch of pretty poor looking scenes of explosions, random jumping and shooting. Definitely did not give you an idea of how the game will play, the structure, etc.
 

Xumbrega

Banned
The tweets about Crackdown 3... they are not good..

I'm worried now, shit man, I can't believe MS is really even considering this after the Scalebound fiasco. lol.
 
Do you have any evidence of this or is this post just like the rest you have made, reactive and hyperbolic.
I don't remember exactly where I read about Phil wanting prettty games to show at E3 but in Eurogamer's piece about the closure of Lionhead, you can see that the problems with Legends was over extending what was supposed to be a free to play game.

"But because this was being set up as a flagship title, there was a strive to make it bigger and more polished before it came out. So the scale of the game was way beyond what it should have been to be a success as a free-to-play title."

Sources say Lionhead's work on Fable Legends was in part an attempt to tick the boxes Microsoft kept drawing. And if it kept ticking those boxes, the studio would keep on making games.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-05-12-lionhead-the-inside-story
 
Phil Spencer became head of games in 2009. He became head of Xbox like three years ago.

This is all on him. Blaming Mattrick is ridiculous as it shows even since he has left the exclusive side has not improved. The exclusive side has been poor since 2009 when Phil took over.
We are discussing lionhead
 

gamz

Member
Half the trailer was Terry Crews yelling at a camera, and the other half was a bunch of pretty poor looking scenes of explosions, random jumping and shooting. Definitely did not give you an idea of how the game will play, the structure, etc.

Did you watch the gameplay?

From the people I've read who played it seemed happy with it. I never got the feeling it lacked focus?
 

Chris1

Member
Alanah doubling down on her earlier comments...

sBfEdgJ.png

Given the way the original tweet is worded, is she referring to the Xbox division not having a choice?

Edit:

 

JlNX

Member
Game got delay, not cancelled. Why people start the blaming game?
If anything, Phil and team deserved praise for this decision. They are not rushing the game out and send it to die, which is what you ask for years.
It mean they willing to invest more money into the project and have faith for Crackdown 3, they want to do it right.

Sure you can look at it that way, but that is only part of the picture. The game from as much as Shannon Loftis has said wasn't ready so it was still MS's call to put a release date on it in the first place. It was also implied they didn't want to release it in the fall, that isn't a good for the player decision but a "we poured fours years of money into this thing we need to make that back." But it's one we can understand and shouldn't be held against them as a negative as some in this thread are. I think this is mostly a learning decision, they have learnt from a rushed project in the form of Recore and the sales of holiday scheduled first party. But most importantly they are reacting to feedback made at E3 and look to be making sure the project lives up to what we had originally envisioned with a firm hint of that placed upon the multiplayer. That should be praised, that they are willing to put more time and money into the game to listen to feedback and make sure the game lives up to it's expectations while showing that they are learning from past mistakes. They seem to want Crackdown as an IP to sell well and review well, which seems to be shown with Recore were they want to remedy their mistakes and have faith in the IP not monetary trust. So that's good and I hope they realise quality is the biggest issue alongside financial success with their first party as those are intertwined. Which makes me think Halo will be a "when it's ready release rather than a Holiday 2017 release.
 

gamz

Member
Sure you can look at it that way, but that is only part of the picture. The game from as much as Shannon Loftis has said wasn't ready so it was still MS's call to put a release date on it in the first place. It was also implied they didn't want to release it in the fall, that isn't a good for the player decision but a "we poured fours years of money into this thing we need to make that back." But it's one we can understand and shouldn't be held against them as a negative as some in this thread are. I think this is mostly a learning decision, they have learnt from a rushed project in the form of Recore and the sales of holiday scheduled first party. But most importantly they are reacting to feedback made at E3 and look to be making sure the project lives up to what we had originally envisioned with a firm hint of that placed upon the multiplayer. That should be praised, that they are willing to put more time and money into the game to listen to feedback and make sure the game lives up to it's expectations while showing that they are learning from past mistakes. They seem to want Crackdown as an IP to sell well and review well, which seems to be shown with Recore were they want to remedy their mistakes and have faith in the IP not monetary trust. So that's good and I hope they realise quality is the biggest issue alongside financial success with their first party as those are intertwined. Which makes me think Halo will be a "when it's ready release rather than a Holiday 2017 release.

Good post.
 
The tweets about Crackdown 3... they are not good..

I'm worried now, shit man, I can't believe MS is really even considering this after the Scalebound fiasco. lol.

I mean, they can't win no matter which you look at it.

*Shipping a game that isn't ready and might get bad reviews = shitted on
*Cancelling, the game because it's shaping well = shitted on
*Delaying the game to give it more time for polish = shitted on

Some of this falls on MS way of so far handling and showing off the game to the public for sure, but unless this games comes out and is highly rated...MS and Crackdown will get shitted on.
 
I mean, they can't win no matter which you look at it.

*Shipping a game that isn't ready and might get bad reviews = shitted on
*Cancelling, the game because it's shaping well = shitted on
*Delaying the game to give it more time for polish = shitted on

Some of this falls on MS way of so far handling and showing off the game to the public for sure, but unless this games comes out and is highly rated...MS and Crackdown will get shitted on.

Well delaying a game only gets you shit on in the present. When that game comes out, if it's amazing, that'll all change.
 
Did you watch the gameplay?

From the people I've read who played it seemed happy with it. I never got the feeling it lacked focus?
Yeah, it looks generic. Even Agents of Mayhem seems more interesting. I mean, that's obviously just my opinion, but I haven't seen much excitement about the game, especially what they've actually shown rather than what people hope it will be, in a long time.
 
Well delaying a game only gets you shit on in the present. When that game comes out, if it's amazing, that'll all change.

Yah that's the point I was trying to get across.

It's better for MS to delay the game which will hopefully lead to a better polished game for gamers to enjoy than to release the game in a rushed and bad state EVEN following the cancellation of ScaleBound earlier this year.

It's in the best interests for them to do so. I think they are learning and saw the feedback (I hope) and allowing the game to cook longer in the oven so hopefully a better product will be produced.

There will be backlash and outcries for sure, but IF delaying in returns make the game into a gem. They will get better publicity when that time comes then the negative that they may get launching the game in the state it's been shown.

Also, November is just a bad time for an IP like CD to come out in, it will get completely crushed by the other big titles coming out around the same time.
 
Alanah doubling down on her earlier comments...



Given the way the original tweet is worded, is she referring to the Xbox division not having a choice?

Edit:

It could be total bullshit as she says. Let's hope it is, whatever it is that she heard.

The thing is, we all thought Scalebound was still happening too after they announced the delay and then later came the news about the cancelation. Man what a mess. How I wish MS would be like Sony, really doing a fine job at their own games.
 
So spring will have SoD 2, SoT and CD? I feel like that's the best choice for all three of these games, they would probably have been slaughtered in the holiday season.

I hope they all turn out great and sell well, MS needs it
 

JlNX

Member
I don't remember exactly where I read about Phil wanting prettty games to show at E3 but in Eurogamer's piece about the closure of Lionhead, you can see that the problems with Legends was over extending what was supposed to be a free to play game.

I really don't see what about this quote makes you come to this conclusion, the project from the very beginning was pitched to MS as being a technical showcase for Xbox and Win10 (DX12) by Lionhead. When you look at the number of delays and the amount of content being produced that is all on Lionhead, Lionhead should easily be capable of making that game in the time frame required F2P or not. It not as expensive or time consuming as gears 4 yet they Not only hit their timeline but did it in less time while also making a remaster of gears 1. The developers job is not to worry about the model because it doesn't effect them, I'm also not going to argue that Phil Harrison F2P initiative wasn't stupid because it was. The issue was the studio itself based on all the info we have, I doubt they would have survived after the release of legends anyway unless it some how did incredibly well.


Alanah doubling down on her earlier comments...



Given the way the original tweet is worded, is she referring to the Xbox division not having a choice?

Edit:

Are you sure she's not referring to the fact that it's not MS's choice that they have had two cancel two games so close together. Plus no offence to Alanah but she doesn't do this sort of journalism especially IGN, she is the person on an unlocked who during a MVC infinite conversation said she heard a story which was kinda blatantly obvious and not a leak and said she heard it at pax from a pro player. So I wouldn't personally put much stock in what she says in relation to that type of journalism, if Jason decides to chime in that would be interesting.

Edit: Oh I see you edited it and even she says it could be bullshit lol.
 

Chris1

Member
It could be total bullshit as she says. Let's hope it is, whatever it is that she heard.

The thing is, we all thought Scalebound was still happening too after they announced the delay and then later came the news about the cancelation. Man what a mess. How I wish MS would be like Sony, really doing a fine job at their own games.
I reaaaally don't think they will actually cancel Crackdown as I said last page, after all the cancellations this gen that's a disaster waiting to happen if so. In that case I honestly think Phil/team Xbox would just rush the game out and be like yeah the game sucked, we'll try better next time. Neither options are good but one is disastrous PR while the other is just simply bad PR. The game would only have had another 2 months before it went gold anyway, it's not as if it was still months/years out.


Yeah although to be fair, a lot of people were questioning why the fuck MS was still making Scalebound, a JRPG as an Xbox exclusive in the first place.
 

EmiPrime

Member
Delaying CD3 was the right decision, the game just looked ropey as hell. The alternatives were a MC in the 60s and red faces all round or cancelling it (probably would have happened 9 months ago were it not for the Scalebound debacle).

I hope they can salvage it.
 
I reaaaally don't think they will actually cancel Crackdown as I said last page, after all the cancellations this gen that's a disaster waiting to happen if so. In that case I honestly think Phil/team Xbox would just rush the game out and be like yeah the game sucked, we'll try better next time. Neither options are good but one is disastrous PR while the other is just simply bad PR. The game would only have had another 2 months before it went gold anyway, it's not as if it was still months/years out.


Yeah although to be fair, a lot of people were questioning why the fuck MS was still making Scalebound, a JRPG as an Xbox exclusive in the first place.

True man. It can go anywhere now, I'd like to believe chances of it actually releasing next year are bigger than it being canceled. But again Scalebound, it seemed fine despite the delay and then it was canned and in development for pretty much as long as Crackdown, right? Ah well, we'll just have to wait and see.

If we don't see a thing of the game at GC, not even the singleplayer, that won't be a good look.
 
Delaying CD3 was the right decision, the game just looked ropey as hell. The alternatives were a MC in the 60s and red faces all round or cancelling it (probably would have happened 9 months ago were it not for the Scalebound debacle).

I hope they can salvage it.

Delaying the game from November to spring isn’t much time in the development cycle to make dramatic changes to the game
 

EmiPrime

Member
Delaying the game from November to spring isn’t much time in the development cycle to make dramatic changes to the game

I agree, I don't have much confidence in their ability to turn it around. They might be better off axing the SP (apologies to Sumo for suggesting this) and pumping everything they've got into the MP.
 

peppers

Member
I don't think there needs to be dramatic changes tbh. Crackdown 3 needs the following:

1. An open beta across X1 and PC with SEVERAL multiplayer modes all of them with 100% destructible arenas.
2. Quite a lot of polish in the animation and lighting department. The movement and gameplay is fine, but also make sure that it has rock solid frame rate.
3. Bundle Halo 6 beta for the summer.
4. Release at least one month before RDR 2 if possible.
 

Keinning

Member
All this silence on the MP footage sure looked grim. Guess its better a delay and try to improve what they can than release in this state (which must be pretty bad). It's not like anyone is going to be surprised by this point anyway.

Problem is they spent a good half of the year saying "crackdown will save the year, just you wait!" and then this happen. Not looking good at all.

At least gimme some nice gems tomorrow for BC, i'll take LA Noire over CD3 thank you very much
 

JlNX

Member
Now Alanah is stepping back her tweets and calling it her theories, like come on Alanah that is very badly worded.
 

Keinning

Member
Now Alanah is stepping back her tweets and calling it her theories, like come on Alanah that is very badly worded.

she's probably getting a lot of flak for what she said. can't blame her for backpedaling a bit, if she's right time will show it anyway. knowing the internet some people probably are being incredibly rude to her right now, and i don't want to say something worse than that
 

Montresor

Member
I've never been happier with a delay that I was with Crackdown 3 hahaha.

The game looked _rough_. I'm pleased Microsoft is going to give it time.
 

peppers

Member
It's crazy how Crackdown 3 and Scalebound became trending topics (in my area at least) ONLY when there's bad news. From people believing that it was exclusive to the 1X all the way up to people claiming they are now cancelling their preorders (lol). At this point MS Studios should just come out on stage to say they're cancelling the game and minutes later show new destruction footage and say it was all a joke for maximum impact.
 

EmiPrime

Member
It's crazy how Crackdown 3 and Scalebound became trending topics (in my area at least) ONLY when there's bad news. From people believing that it was exclusive to the 1X all the way up to people claiming they are now cancelling their preorders (lol). At this point MS Studios should just come out on stage to say they're cancelling the game and minutes later show new destruction footage and say it was all a joke for maximum impact.

To be fair CD3 has been delayed many times (it will have been in development for 4 years by the time it comes out) and E3 was the first time we'd seen the single player and it looked cack. There really hasn't been any positive CD3 news for years.
 
Alanah doubling down on her earlier comments...



Given the way the original tweet is worded, is she referring to the Xbox division not having a choice?

Edit:

could be a decision to not allow it to be pancaked by COD and the other fall blockbusters. Maybe they found a window in early 2018 where it can kinda stand up for a few weeks before being ran over?
 

Papacheeks

Banned
I agree, I don't have much confidence in their ability to turn it around. They might be better off axing the SP (apologies to Sumo for suggesting this) and pumping everything they've got into the MP.

That's actually not far from what May be happening at the moment.
 

Keinning

Member
axing SP completely would just give fuel to the "omg xbox is all about GaaS always online games now" doomsayers. not sure if it would be a good thing

could be a decision to not allow it to be pancaked by COD and the other fall blockbusters. Maybe they found a window in early 2018 where it can kinda stand up for a few weeks before being ran over?

I honestly doubt that everything is still going smooth and they're just trying to avoid a crowded window. There are better ways of doing that than going silent and letting a delay leak to the press like this.
 
To be fair CD3 has been delayed many times (it will have been in development for 4 years by the time it comes out) and E3 was the first time we'd seen the single player and it looked cack. There really hasn't been any positive CD3 news for years.

And it still won't be half of the time TLG was in development. People are making way too much of this delay.
 
So do we expect that there are third party contracts out there for games we don't know about yet? I mean I feel like there can't be any real surprises from their internal studios since we more or less know what they're all doing currently.
 

Keinning

Member
So do we expect that there are third party contracts out there for games we don't know about yet? I mean I feel like there can't be any real surprises from their internal studios since we more or less know what they're all doing currently.

For 2017? Doubt it.
Maybe they can grab a game that would be previously only PC/PS4 to get a xbox version, but can't think of many right now
 

JlNX

Member
And it still won't be half of the time TLG was in development. People are making way too much of this delay.

It's mostly because MS showed it of way to early, practically in concept stages and then repeatedly kept giving non release date which were obviously placeholder from the start. If they had only showed it of at 2016 or even 2015 E3 without trying to put a obviously placeholder date on it then this delay wouldn't be construed as negative.
 
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