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[Goalus]

Blatant lie? Halo 5 has had one of the steepest drop offs from a previous entry this gen and one of MS's biggest drops overall. That's not a lie.

The game sold significantly less than prior entries.

According to MS it sold 5M in 3 months.
Additionally a lot of money seems to be made by microtransactions, which its predecessors didn't have to this degree. Doing the math leads me to believe that Halo 5 might easily pass Halo 3 in terms of revenue and profit when all is said and done.

 

[Theorry]

Unless Patcher is willing to provide data that goes against official NPD data, that quote holds little to no value.

NPD date is only US and not includes digital. NPD never tells the whole picture.

 

[Primethius]

According to MS it sold 5M in 3 months.
Additionally a lot of money seems to be made by microtransactions, which its predecessors didn't have to this degree. Doing the math leads me to believe that Halo 5 might easily pass Halo 3 in terms of revenue and profit when all is said and done.

Not according to MS, according to a post by Frankie that he never followed up or clarified IIRC.

And Happy 2/3/4 sold 3.3 million in one month in one territory. There's a world of difference between that and Halo 5s first month opening, which was a 70% drop.

You want to talk profits? Fine. That's not what Shinobi post is about, nor does his post bring about a lie.

NPD date is only US and not includes digital.

The game had your standard digital attach rate and was not close to opening to the 3.3 million Halo 2/3/4 did (it opened to 900k). Patchers statement is so obsfucated that it means little to nothing without actual data since even Halo 1 doesn't have the same sales figures of it's later titles.

So for him to bunch 1 with 2/3/4 is confusing enough.

 

[sam12]

We haven’t done our jobs as owners and fans of XBOX. Every day I have read this thread hoping that we as fans of Xbox can find common ground, but I see that we will not be able to reach that. Most people in this thread believe full heartedly that Microsoft is in a good place I’m here to tell everyone that they not. Multiple canceled games, reports of higher up meddling in the Xbox business, closing studios, Not green light sequels to good games. You would all tell me it’s fine it's’ fucking not I love my xbone and the fact that Microsoft has failed to make new IPs and games worth buying is on them. Phil Spencer has been in that company for years as the head of first party studios and now the head of Xbox. He has done nothing to help the situation only make it worse. Everyone defending him you’re part of the problem. You hold none of them responsible when they should have their asses held to the fire every fucking day. I don’t care for lip service or this bullshit that they keep spouting with the X1X. Hardware doesn’t get me software does and they sadly have no compelling offers. This was the year where I would decide to either keep my Xbox one or sell it and it looks like I’m done. So too all of you who were arguing resolution instead of games and power instead of games you got your wish however you killed Xbox with it.

I don't blame you for doing so. I wish they would focus on more exclusives but it's just not in the cards. The division today seems to be completely different from the original Xbox and early 360 days.

 

[Goalus]

Not according to MS, according to a post by Frankie that he never followed up or clarified IIRC.

And Happy 2/3/4 sold 3.3 million in one month in one territory. There's a world of difference between that and Halo 5s first month opening, which was a 70% drop.

You want to talk profits? Fine. That's not what Shinobi post is about, nor does his post bring about a lie.

He said "Halo doing less than before". If instead Halo 5 proves to bring in more money than its predecessors, then he was lying.

 

[Primethius]

He said "Halo doing less than before". If instead Halo 5 proves to bring in more money than its predecessors, then he was lying.

Uh, no.

In that sentence, he talks about Gears selling less than before. That context means he's talking about Halo sales when he says less than, not profits. He doesn't indicate that he's talking about Halo profits so I'm not sure how he can be lying about something he wasn't speaking about.

 

[PanicFreak]

So, how about that Ori 2 trailer? Pretty cool huh?

 

[NoMoreTrolls]

So, how about that Ori 2 trailer? Pretty cool huh?

Can't wait! I loved the first one.
Do we have a release time frame for it?

 

[Theorry]

The game had your standard digital attach rate and was not close to opening to the 3.3 million Halo 2/3/4 did (it opened to 900k). Patchers statement is so obsfucated that it means little to nothing without actual data since even Halo 1 doesn't have the same sales figures of it's later titles.

So for him to bunch 1 with 2/3/4 is confusing enough.

Edit: My bad read it wrong.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

So, how about that Ori 2 trailer? Pretty cool huh?

lol

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Oke but those are 9/10 months old. We all know Gears 4 was down on Gears 3. Wich sold 3m in the first month i believe. So yeah thats expected. But we dont what is profitable etc now almost a year later. MT are huge nowadays also. Halo 5 MT delivered more money in 6 months and any previous Halo DLC for example.

Sure, just providing more sources aside from Shinobi. I wouldn't be surprised by MTX helping out a lot.

 

[blakep267]

So, how about that Ori 2 trailer? Pretty cool huh?

Nice segue. I actually beat the game recently. To be honest, it was fine. I didn't care about the story at all, just the gameplay and challenge. I found it lacking and while the music may have made the scenes sad, I felt no attachement to oro or any of the characters

Also I played the definitive edition. I can't imagine playing the vanilla game without the quick travel and new abilities. Would've been terrible. I'll probably pick up 2 when it's $10 or so

 

[sam12]

I feel like the known exclusives are all that we will get for Xbox one. Any future exclusives will probably be for the next generation. Delaying all SOD, SOT and C3 also buys them time

 

[Vinc]

We can only say that for sure if their 1st-party output continues to decline.
I will gladly agree with you if in 2019 we will only get one or even zero exclusives.

It's been declining for a very long time now. Why would it suddenly become valid in 2 years? I'm concerned right now.

And on top of that, we have people who, like I said, have very much proven track records saying that MS is not increasing their first party investments. Even without this valuable insight, where the heck would the first party games come from, provided there are far more that we don't know about? ALL of their first party teams are currently accounted for, and the amount of independent studios without any announced projects or continued work is very much dwindling. Unless MS has a studio hidden away somewhere with 500 people tolling away at a first party game, one can safely and reasonably assume that what we see is what we get!

 

[Vinc]

He said "Halo doing less than before". If instead Halo 5 proves to bring in more money than its predecessors, then he was lying.

If Halo is selling to less people but extracting more from each user, that's still very, very worrisome from a business perspective, especially as their TOP franchise outside of Minecraft, which might as well not be part of the Xbox division at all!

 

[Goalus]

Uh, no.

In that sentence, he talks about Gears selling less than before. That context means he's talking about Halo sales when he says less than, not profits. He doesn't indicate that he's talking about Halo profits so I'm not sure how he can be lying about something he wasn't speaking about.

The context was budget. Which he assumed to be limited due to "Halo doing less than before". If he was talking just about unit sales in this context, it would have been wise to either not make such a statement at all or realize that the current year is 2017 and not 2002. Then he could have realized that games can continue to make money after having been sold, and for a substantial amount of time as well in some cases.

 

[JlNX]

Quote

I decided to ignore both your and DrifitingSpirits replies to my post due to the fact that you missed the context of that point (no big deal), even though I admit it could have been worded better and directly quoting the original context of the post would have helped (Sorry about that driftingSpirit.) As I was replying to a post that was primarily addressing the perception of exclusives not the reality, in this case a game like gravity rush 2 would not have altered the perception of exclusives between the platforms meaningfully in this scenario. That was all that was meant by that point, as games like Omega collection and Locoroco remasters do not widely change perception of a console just like Super Lucky's Tale or PD. But in your case your followed reply was to deviate past a point of relevant discussion to post this:

Only 6? I count a lot more than that. They have 8 scheduled for the remainder of this year alone.

But yes, the narrative that Microsoft releases just as many games as Sony is absolute rubbish. Sony has/will release more first party games in August/September (5) than Microsoft's got this entire year (4).

Which was only in favour of this post made by Blakep267, which was directly inline with your post that was unnecessary and was not in line with the point of discussion of the thread. With it in reality sounding like a charged and quickly replient post that no matter added context would have become reality, due to the lack of discussion of the post and the content but the need to defend and go beyond it.

But that's not what the thread is for. It's for discussing games and partnerships. You can discuss crackdowns delay but bringing in. Sony games makes zero sense as it doesn't have anything to do with the thread. If you want to compare the catalogues we have threads every other week about the "dismal" state of the Xbox

With your reply being to Blakep267 as seen below being that of deflection, trying to push your deviation of the discussion of the thread from your post that had nothing to do with the context of my post as discussed above. Which was already out of the intended context which based on your post would not have changed given context. This included post also showing an admittance that you were deviating the discussion of the thread, which under no reality did it need to become a point of discussion which is upon the posters deviating. Drifitngspirits reply to my post was completely fine as I said above it was partly based on wording I could have been more clear of and added context would have avoided the conversation, so it's completely reasonable that Driftingspirits could not have seen the original context. While Triggerhappytel's post was unnecessary to the conversation of thread and added discussion to a deviation in the thread, I appreciated the added context to the post for anyone else reading. Your post was simply a deviation of discussion that was not in direction of my post, nor would it have been worthwhile to the point DrifitingSpirit had already made.

Criticise JINX for making the completely ridiculous comparison in the first place then, not the list that easily disproves it. All the responses prove is that this thread isn't a bubble where bullshit like that can go unchecked and that's a good thing.

What I find strange about your post is your deflection to concur with "criticism" for a point that while taken out of context would still be an opinion and would have no relevance on your deviation. But this is no surprise to me given your post style in other threads including the first party Playstation thread, were you are quick to defend and condemn opinion you don't agree with deriding of their post and the person. "All the responses prove is that this thread isn't a bubble where bullshit like that can go unchecked and that's a good thing." I find the need to address this quote from your post as it is worrying that someone would need to use this kind of statement to direct upon a point of discussion relating to video games yes video games, you might want to cool off your posting style. Remind you a reply based on a quote without context. I will leave this here as no more added discussion from me will add or change anything to the context or what you believe it to be and as not to derail the thread. I will make sure when I'm making a point that it is worded better and that the original context is point of the discussion. But like I said I will leave the discussion here.

 

[Wedzi]

It's funny, I was on Xbox Live last night and looked at the most popular section and noticed four CoD games (Infinite Warfare, CoD 4 Remastered, Blops 3, and freaking Blops 2) were all ahead of Halo 5.

Call of Duty has been more popular than Halo on Xbox for awhile now but that's pretty ridiculous. Really hope they have something big planned for Halo 6.

 

[EmiPrime]

Gears 4 had its price slashed not long after launch:

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Gears-War-4-Xbox-One/product/B00ZFNLHTU?context=search

Successful games don't get reduced to half price a month after they come out. I liked the game (I bought it twice: once on launch and again from cdkeys) but it was a huge retail flop in the UK.

 

[Welfare]

Unless Patcher is willing to provide data that goes against official NPD data, that quote holds little to no value.

We already know from Stinkles that Halo 5 shipped 5M in 2015, and players 6 months in doesn't go against sales numbers.

If Halo 3 had 1,000,000 players in February 07 (month 6) and Halo 5 had +1,000,001 in March (month 6) than Halo 5 had more players 6 months in than 3.

 

[Vinc]

It's funny, I was on Xbox Live last night and looked at the most popular section and noticed four CoD games (Infinite Warfare, CoD 4 Remastered, Blops 3, and freaking Blops 2) were all ahead of Halo 5.

Call of Duty has been more popular than Halo on Xbox for awhile now but that's pretty ridiculous. Really hope they have something big planned for Halo 6.

As much as people like to yawn and moan when a new Gears or Halo is announced, I think those 2 franchises are absolutely CRUCIAL to the next steps for Xbox. They both need to be shockingly great / unmissable. If we just get "another Halo" and "another Gears", the transition to next-gen could be unsurmountably rough for Xbox. That's my point of view. I think these two games being fantastic are the best chance Xbox has at finding renewed relevance. Look at what the string of great first party games did to Sony last gen.

I would argue that Xbox's most "unmissable" game this entire generation has been Forza Horizon 3, a game that sold very well for being in such a niche genre.

 

[Theorry]

Gears 4 had its price slashed not long after launch:

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Gears-War-4-Xbox-One/product/B00ZFNLHTU?context=search

Successful games don't get reduced to half price a month after they come out. I liked the game (I bought it twice: once on launch and again from cdkeys) but it was a huge retail flop in the UK.

Tell that to BF1. That one went on sale 3 weeks after the release to 40 bucks.

 

[EmiPrime]

Tell that to BF1. That one went on sale 3 weeks after the release to 40 bucks.

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Elec...lefield-PS4/product/B01F5D1MJE?context=search

Looks to me like its value has held steady. BF1 did okay at retail.

 

[Theorry]

https://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/Elec...lefield-PS4/product/B01F5D1MJE?context=search

Looks to me like its value has held steady. BF1 did okay at retail.

Yet it went on sale alot of times even within 3 weeks. So succesfull games still can get a drop soon. Not saying Gears did amazing. But games tend to drop quick who come out just before black friday.

 

[Papacheeks]

As much as people like to yawn and moan when a new Gears or Halo is announced, I think those 2 franchises are absolutely CRUCIAL to the next steps for Xbox. They both need to be shockingly great / unmissable. If we just get "another Halo" and "another Gears", the transition to next-gen could be unsurmountably rough for Xbox. That's my point of view. I think these two games being fantastic are the best chance Xbox has at finding renewed relevance. Look at what the string of great first party games did to Sony last gen.

I would argue that Xbox's most "unmissable" game this entire generation has been Forza Horizon 3, a game that sold very well for being in such a niche genre.

Thing is Sony and Nintendo have been able to find success outside of major franchises and create new ones. Microsoft has yet to do that.

So unless they approach those current franchises with being able to completely, re-work everything and create something special like Zelda:BOTW, for Sony Uncharted 4, God of war even though it's not out people can't stop talking about it, even Mario is being talked a shit ton because of how batshit nuts it looks. I don't see Gears and halo making those kinds of waves,especially after master chief collection and halo 5 campaign, gears 4 as well though mechanically sound has a been there done that feel with nothing really new that excites you.

 

[Wedzi]

As much as people like to yawn and moan when a new Gears or Halo is announced, I think those 2 franchises are absolutely CRUCIAL to the next steps for Xbox. They both need to be shockingly great / unmissable. If we just get "another Halo" and "another Gears", the transition to next-gen could be unsurmountably rough for Xbox. That's my point of view. I think these two games being fantastic are the best chance Xbox has at finding renewed relevance. Look at what the string of great first party games did to Sony last gen.

I would argue that Xbox's most "unmissable" game this entire generation has been Forza Horizon 3, a game that sold very well for being in such a niche genre.

Agreed. I think Gears though needs a God of War like revival though. Something that makes the franchise feel really fresh and new. While Halo needs to find a way to recapture the old magic.

I still think MS missed an opportunity to try and create their own CoD competitor when they lost the marketing license and during CoDs jetpack phase (AW to Infinite Warfare). Ah well.

 

[Papacheeks]

Agreed. I think Gears though needs a God of War like revival though. Something that makes the franchise feel really fresh and new. While Halo needs to find a way to recapture the old magic.

I still think MS missed an opportunity to try and create their own CoD competitor when they lost the marketing license and during CoDs jetpack phase (AW to Infinite Warfare). Ah well.

Agreed. Same with Halo.

 

[EmiPrime]

Yet it went on sale alot of times even within 3 weeks.

What has that got to do with the price of fish? Successful games still have some promotions during BF and Christmas. Gears 4 has had multiple permanent price drops and CEX have been selling it for around a tenner for months. Sorry I don't see how anyone can spin Gears 4 as a UK retail success.

 

[Vinc]

Agreed. I think Gears though needs a God of War like revival though. Something that makes the franchise feel really fresh and new. While Halo needs to find a way to recapture the old magic.

I still think MS missed an opportunity to try and create their own CoD competitor when they lost the marketing license and during CoDs jetpack phase (AW to Infinite Warfare). Ah well.

Halo needs the God of War / Breath of the Wild reinvention treatment as well. As much as I'm a fan of the old trilogy myself, I think it needs to feel fresh and bold again. It's a cliche at this point, but going non-linear open world would fit the franchise quite well, if you ask me, and would very much make waves in the industry if they can nail a new formula. Following market trends would be very smart, as long as they can do that very well.

 

[Theorry]

What has that got to do with the price of fish? Successful games still have some promotions during BF and Christmas. Gears 4 has had multiple permanent price drops and CEX have been selling it for around a tenner for months. Sorry I don't see how anyone can spin Gears 4 as a UK retail success.

Who says its retail success. Just pointed out even successful game get a price drop pretty soon.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

Those feels, just like this thread lol.

 

[Ricerocket]

It's going to be interesting to see where Phil approves of the next Halo and Gear's direction.

Hero shooters, Survival, or Battle Royale are the current top trends in popularity. Besides that, for hardcore shooters there is Quake Champions and Law Breakers and for horde mode grind games there is something like Fortnite. If Phil goes with "another Halo" and "another Gears", then he is still catering to a diminishing fan base and not opening up to others aka he not even trying.

 

[Goalus]

It's been declining for a very long time now. Why would it suddenly become valid in 2 years? I'm concerned right now.

And on top of that, we have people who, like I said, have very much proven track records saying that MS is not increasing their first party investments. Even without this valuable insight, where the heck would the first party games come from, provided there are far more that we don't know about? ALL of their first party teams are currently accounted for, and the amount of independent studios without any announced projects or continued work is very much dwindling. Unless MS has a studio hidden away somewhere with 500 people tolling away at a first party game, one can safely and reasonably assume that what we see is what we get!

My assumption is that Phil was not lying when he was saying something like "service is great now, hardware is great now, now it's time to concentrate on the games" (not a literal quote). Xbox obviously has a limited budget, and some earlier 1st-party exclusives didn't work out as expected (Quantum Break is an example). I consider it possible that they simply couldn't afford new big games during R&D of Xbone X. My hope is that they are now slowly starting to increase their 1st-party output. I might lose hope if it continues to decline for the next 2 or 3 years.

 

[JlNX]

Nice segue. I actually beat the game recently. To be honest, it was fine. I didn't care about the story at all, just the gameplay and challenge. I found it lacking and while the music may have made the scenes sad, I felt no attachement to oro or any of the characters

Also I played the definitive edition. I can't imagine playing the vanilla game without the quick travel and new abilities. Would've been terrible. I'll probably pick up 2 when it's $10 or so

You didn't cry once?? You heartless fiend /s I actually for first time in along time had watery eyes for game, haven't had that in a long time. I agree the definitive added a lot of much needed quality of life improvements and shows the team are open to and know how to address feedback. Which is great as with Ori 2 Thomas has been really open to feedback and shown he cares about which can only spell great things for the game. In terms of gameplay it shows with the original that the level design in areas like the tree make the game shine. Which is why I'm excited to see the AM2R dev come on as a level designer, because Ori's core gameplay is at it's best when the level design enables it.

 

[EmiPrime]

Who says its retail success. Just pointed out even successful game get a price drop pretty soon.

There's a difference between temporary price promotions (supermarkets here sell FIFA on release weekend at a reduced price to get people through their doors) and price drops motivated by poor sales to clear stock. Gears 4 was the latter.

 

[MosquitoSmasher]

Those feels, just like this thread lol.

That part is awesome. I really wonder what those birds statues in the background mean/are. I'm sure we'll find out and it's likely quite sad.

And I wonder if that's how it looks ingame too, it probably does.

 

[Vinc]

Thing is Sony and Nintendo have been able to find success outside of major franchises and create new ones. Microsoft has yet to do that.

So unless they approach those current franchises with being able to completely, re-work everything and create something special like Zelda:BOTW, for Sony Uncharted 4, God of war even though it's not out people can't stop talking about it, even Mario is being talked a shit ton because of how batshit nuts it looks. I don't see Gears and halo making those kinds of waves,especially after master chief collection and halo 5 campaign, gears 4 as well though mechanically sound has a been there done that feel with nothing really new that excites you.

Nintendo has done so with Splatoon, but I doubt the budget of Splatoon is up to AAA standards. Sony has been able to build new franchises due to the way they're set up, and because their success has allowed them to luxury to take risks. Microsoft does need to make sure its pillar franchises are healthy before heading into unknown territory. I always see people asking for new IPs from them, but I always thought what must be done is to make people CARE about Halo and Gears again.

With any franchise, in games or otherwise, there's a certain point where you have to innovate and offer "hooks". That point is usually when the perception of quality stops growing from one installment to the next. Halo 2 didn't really reinvent the wheel, but the perception of quality grew from 1 to 2 in the overall market. Same going from 2 to 3. After that, the perception of quality didn't immediately decline, but it plateaued. Reach wasn't seen as meaningfully better than 3, and 4 was actually seen as a decline from 3. By that point, you're already past the moment where you should think of having a strong hook to reinvigorate the series. I think 343 recognized it, and tried to have a story hook with the introduction of Locke, and a multiplayer hook with Warzone, free DLC, and an e-sports focus.

Gears 4 didn't really have an obvious hook. Hard to grasp what they were going for with that one, but they might have thought that the generational transition was a strong enough pull.

I think these hooks weren't at all strong enough. They need something far more drastic next time around. Without that, I truly, honestly see the possibility of devastating outcomes for Xbox as a whole. I don't think they have many other options for renewed relevance and future growth, barring a surprise hit.

 

[Theorry]

There's a difference between temporary price promotions (supermarkets here sell FIFA on release weekend at a reduced price to get people through their doors) and price drops motivated by poor sales to clear stock. Gears 4 was the latter.

Thats not what you said tho. But awell lets move on.

Gears 4 didn't really have an obvious hook. Hard to grasp what they were going for with that one, but they might have thought that the generational transition was a strong enough pull.

I think these hooks weren't at all strong enough. They need something far more drastic next time around. Without that, I truly, honestly see the possibility of devastating outcomes for Xbox as a whole. I don't think they have many other options for renewed relevance and future growth, barring a surprise hit.

Rod clearly said from the beginning Gears 4 was all about showing they could make a Gears game first and then changing it. Instead of what 343 did really with 4 wich hurt Halo.
So i expect big changes from Gears 5.

 

[Greigor The Fellhand]

That part is awesome. I really wonder what those birds statues in the background mean/are. I'm sure we'll find out and it's likely quite sad.

And I wonder if that's how it looks ingame too, it probably does.

pretty sure those arent statues...

but the corpses of the birds, considering the scene I believe a Fire went through that area, and the birds shielded their eggs

 

[Vinc]

My assumption is that Phil was not lying when he was saying something like "service is great now, hardware is great now, now it's time to concentrate on the games" (not a literal quote). Xbox obviously has a limited budget, and some earlier 1st-party exclusives didn't work out as expected (Quantum Break is an example). I consider it possible that they simply couldn't afford new big games during R&D of Xbone X. My hope is that they are now slowly starting to increase their 1st-party output. I might lose hope if it continues to decline for the next 2 or 3 years.

I think it's very obviously not true. The people working on hardware and service are very different from the people working on software, and if they literally had to lower the budget of the games pillar to concentrate on the other two, then the situation is far more dire than I even thought, and you can truly start ringing the alarm bells. That would be a REALLY bad sign.

(has the service side even really meaningfully evolved beyond the introduction of Game Pass, which seems fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things?)

 

[EmiPrime]

Thats not what you said tho. But awell lets move on.

Yeah I think that's for the best.

FH3 though... woof. Now there's a massive success here, on Playground's home turf!

 

[Bits N Pieces]

pretty sure those arent statues...

but the corpses of the birds, considering the scene I believe a Fire went through that area, and the birds shielded their eggs

Christ....

:'(

 

[Keinning]

(has the service side even really meaningfully evolved beyond the introduction of Game Pass, which seems fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things?)

gamepass, UI revisions, improving/expanding BC, new creator's thingy, arena, LFG, addition of first BG music then spotify, integration of mixer, etcetera

its up to personal opinion to judge how important these services are for themselves, but you can't deny they did a lot

 

[Vinc]

Thats not what you said tho. But awell lets move on.



Rod clearly said from the beginning Gears 4 was all about showing they could make a Gears game first and then changing it. Instead of what 343 did really with 4 wich hurt Halo.
So i expect big changes from Gears 5.

I would hope that's just PR speak. Producing and releasing a full game that they would expect to have disappointing results just to "prove to themselves they can make a classic Gears game first" is a ridiculous concept. Let alone the fact that there would be no use in proving to themselves that they can make a game that is old and no longer up to the current standards / trends of the market.

I really hope both Gears and Halo manage to recover and regain some life with their next installments, but I've been baffled by several decisions they've made this gen.

gamepass, UI revisions, improving/expanding BC, new creator's thingy, arena, LFG, addition of first BG music then spotify, integration of mixer, etcetera

its up to personal opinion to judge how important these services are for themselves, but you can't deny they did a lot

Yeah, but if there ever was a meeting where someone said "let's allocate all of our budget to improving these features instead of investing in our first party portfolio, this has more of a chance to promote growth for us", then the situation is truly grim.

 

[The Pet of the Month]

You didn't cry once?? You heartless fiend /s I actually for first time in along time had watery eyes for game, haven't had that in a long time. I agree the definitive added a lot of much needed quality of life improvements and shows the team are open to and know how to address feedback. Which is great as with Ori 2 Thomas has been really open to feedback and shown he cares about which can only spell great things for the game. In terms of gameplay it shows with the original that the level design in areas like the tree make the game shine. Which is why I'm excited to see the AM2R dev come on as a level designer, because Ori's core gameplay is at it's best when the level design enables it.

I loved Ori, but I thought the story was rather simplistic. Didn't really tug at my heart strings, especially later on

Spoiler

when Gumo resurrected Naru

where I simply just frowned.

But yeah, can't wait to see what new gameplay changes we get with 2. I truly think it'll be a great game, but I don't have much hopes for the story.

Spoiler

Except, of course, I don't mind a disturbing ending...

 

[JlNX]

Thing is Sony and Nintendo have been able to find success outside of major franchises and create new ones. Microsoft has yet to do that.

So unless they approach those current franchises with being able to completely, re-work everything and create something special like Zelda:BOTW, for Sony Uncharted 4, God of war even though it's not out people can't stop talking about it, even Mario is being talked a shit ton because of how batshit nuts it looks. I don't see Gears and halo making those kinds of waves,especially after master chief collection and halo 5 campaign, gears 4 as well though mechanically sound has a been there done that feel with nothing really new that excites you.

I think they don't need to really redefine the core game of Halo or Gears, the reason I say that is that Halo and Gears were pioneers/originators in their genres. I think what they need to do is not stick to this core game design or simply build upon it, but do what the originals did for their genres and try to leap forward again what the core gameplay of a FPS or TPS is in 2017 while keeping certain rules unique to each games IP. In terms of what I think those games need to do outside of their cores I think they need to have massive changes in terms of story arcs, world design and their sandbox. Only to show a far greater leap in terms of progression than normally between sequels, to show a undeniable leap. In terms of gears I think the Coalition is more than capable of this but I think now with their earn trust of gears fans, they should trust themselves to go a bit mad. The fact they aren't making a gears game in just over two years while also working on a remaster, and also have all their developers tools going in to five and gears 4 in their pocket should allow them to go bigger next time anyway. The just need to take each part of gears (campaign, horde and multi) and dial it up to eleven have changes that would be more representative of a jump between gears1 and 3 rather than 2, most of all not be afraid to make big changes which is what they have insinuated going into five. For Halo I have a very different opinion I have brought up before but Halo is their biggest IP a games that sold 14 million copies, that is similar to a Rockstar game like RD1 so therefore MS should treat Halo with the amount of time, money and talent that GTA would get. We will tell in time if that is what their doing because it could be a 2019 title. With Halo this means the most content of any Halo game to date, the biggest of each mode ever in any Halo game and the most polish and level of detail. That is what Rockstar does, they don't make massive changes they escalate the scale and quality of the game massively between games. This is what I think Halo should do, make cores changes that rely on nostalgia as a selling factor and blow the scale and quality out of the water. Even if that means we wait 4-5 years between Halo games like Rockstar games or that the studio somehow gets bigger (it's already close to 500 developers somehow.)

 

[Primethius]

The context was budget. Which he assumed to be limited due to "Halo doing less than before". If he was talking just about unit sales in this context, it would have been wise to either not make such a statement at all or realize that the current year is 2017 and not 2002. Then he could have realized that games can continue to make money after having been sold, and for a substantial amount of time as well in some cases.

So you are literally ignoring the context of the full sentence?

Amazing.

We already know from Stinkles that Halo 5 shipped 5M in 2015, and players 6 months in doesn't go against sales numbers.

If Halo 3 had 1,000,000 players in February 07 (month 6) and Halo 5 had +1,000,001 in March (month 6) than Halo 5 had more players 6 months in than 3.

Shipping 5 million isn't enough to make a statement about sales true like in Patchers case given the sheer disparity in launch sales between something like Halo 2/3/4 and 5.

His statement is ridiculously vague and invokea comparisons that aren't basically possible to prove or disprove because there's no specificity as to what he's actually talking about.

 

[Papacheeks]

gamepass, UI revisions, improving/expanding BC, new creator's thingy, arena, LFG, addition of first BG music then spotify, integration of mixer, etcetera

its up to personal opinion to judge how important these services are for themselves, but you can't deny they did a lot

It doesn't cost as much to make UI revisions, and all that other stuff. Game pass sure probably cost a decent amount upfront because not all the games they own and they ahve to pay whatever to the publishers for certain profit margins earned from said games that are being put on the service.

But all their efforts should be expanding a reason to buy and xbox and that to me always comes down to exclusives.

 

[Trago]

Ryan McCaffrey of IGN wrote an interesting opinion piece about how he would "fix" first party.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/17/opinion-how-id-fix-xboxs-first-party-problem

Interesting read, but one suggestion is sorely missing, Sakaguchi!

 

[Raide]

Ryan McCaffrey of IGN wrote an interesting opinion piece about how he would "fix" first party.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/08/17/opinion-how-id-fix-xboxs-first-party-problem

Interesting read, but one suggestion is sorely missing, Sakaguchi!

Would love to see the Fable idea come true. Rare would be perfect for it. The whole Shadow Run and Crimson Skies stuff is pure nonsense. New Ninja Gaiden and Splinter Cell on the other hand...