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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

UKUMI0

Member
Don't know if its been posted, but I didn't see it in the OP.

Microsoft own a US based studio called Decisive Games who are working on a "beloved strategy game" but other then that, I can't find anything else out. They have no presence online as far as I can tell.

EDIT: Apparently disbanded. Though I can't find anything to back this up.
 

Chobel

Member
Don't know if its been posted, but I didn't see it in the OP.

Microsoft own a US based studio called Decisive Games who are working on a "beloved strategy game" but other then that, I can't find anything else out. They have no presence online as far as I can tell.

I think MS closed Decisive Games.
 
We won't be getting on the Hype Train to E3 this year, we'll be boarding the Moderately Disenfranchised Minibus, lol.

If all of the 'insiders' are wrong though and MS show off two or three new games at E3 this thread will be fun to revisit :)

Pinch of salt stuff and all that.

Er, MS will obviously show off at least two or three new games at E3 this year.

The question is really whether or not they'll go above and beyond the expected. Especially during an event where they're announcing a new HW as well.

The "expected" duo that I feel everyone is taking as assurance is Forza 7 and Halo 6. Ori 2 is the comfortable 3rd due to the vgleaks name leak.

Personally, I'm even finding disbelief at the notion that MS won't have more than that.

Something like another Sea of Thieves, ReCore, State of Decay 2, Dead Rising 4, the occasional extra 4th "new IP", '3rd party exclusive", "new game from different IP bucket" has been the norm for MS in the past E3s.

Even last year's E3 was disappointing to me because there were no new IP. I've always taken for granted MS will definitely announce at least one new IP per E3, and the fact that 2016 didn't have any was a real shock.
 
Er, MS will obviously show off at least two or three new games at E3 this year.

The question is really whether or not they'll go above and beyond the expected. Especially during an event where they're announcing a new HW as well.

The "expected" duo that I feel everyone is taking as assurance is Forza 7 and Halo 6. Ori 2 is the comfortable 3rd due to the vgleaks name leak.

Personally, I'm even finding disbelief at the notion that MS won't have more than that.

Something like another Sea of Thieves, ReCore, State of Decay 2, Dead Rising 4, the occasional extra 4th "new IP", '3rd party exclusive", "new game from different IP bucket" has been the norm for MS in the past E3s.

Even last year's E3 was disappointing to me because there were no new IP. I've always taken for granted MS will definitely announce at least one new IP per E3, and the fact that 2016 didn't have any was a real shock.

Im only going off what people have been sayin across multiple threads over the last wee while.

Expansions for Halo 5 and Gears 4 are more likely than actual new games.

It's going to be a fun couple of months on here until June till we find out one way or another :)
 

JaggedSac

Member
Im only going off what people have been sayin across multiple threads over the last wee while.

Expansions for Halo 5 and Gears 4 are more likely than actual new games.

It's going to be a fun couple of months on here until June till we find out one way or another :)

To be honest, I actually wouldn't mind if they went to a single Halo multiplayer game managed by 343 that gets updated over the years. Let 3rd parties make various single player Halo games on the side. To be honest, I am 1 and done with pretty much every Halo single player since the beginning.
 
Im only going off what people have been sayin across multiple threads over the last wee while.

Expansions for Halo 5 and Gears 4 are more likely than actual new games.

It's going to be a fun couple of months on here until June till we find out one way or another :)

http://www.gamesradar.com/343-has-started-halo-6-and-knows-whats-going-happen-ten-years-now/

http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/ge...war-5-happening-as-long-as-gears-4-does-well/

Of course we ain't getting Gears 5 this year and I doubt in 2018 too unless they rush it out. But a significant decrease in investment for new IPs (maybe, according to some insights ) and stuff doesn't somehow mean MS will suddenly be cheapskates about their pillar IPs.
 

Chris1

Member
Scorpio ain't going to mean shit if they don't have any exciting software coming when PS4 is so dominant and Switch (to a lesser extent) is varied enough from the two main consoles to offer something actually different.
I don't know what the fuck their plan is with Scorpio if they don't have a good lineup coming after its release.

Best multiplat games isn't gonna mean shit when Sony has all the marketing deals & Phil has publicly spoken about not liking it/not being good for "growth" just a few month ago so I don't think he'll go and sign loads of them. What use is best looking multiplats when MS won't even be able to show as much and all the adverts will say "PS4 - best place to play" or some other tagline?

Sea of thieves looks nice but I don't expect it to be a hit, then where the hell does that leave rare too?
I think SOT will do good, it's a game that's gonna be huge on twitch etc so the game will market itself. But yeah, if SOT flops I think Rare might be next on the chopping board aswell
 

EmiPrime

Member
6 months until we find out if (Ori spoiler)
the Ori followup will feature Ori or Kuro's hatchling (or both) as the titular protagonist.
Hype!
 
I think MS closed Decisive Games.

Wow, if that's true then this is a sad week. My two most anticipated MS titles gone. MS sitting on a bunch of great IPs that are mistreated or unused. I knew Phil has to do what is best for MS, but I hoped he would have some pull and skill to "make Xbox great again".

He's not and MS is showing less and less interest in creating software for their platform.

At least Nintendo and Sony seems to be going strong!
 

UKUMI0

Member
Wow, if that's true then this is a sad week. My two most anticipated MS titles gone. MS sitting on a bunch of great IPs that are mistreated or unused. I knew Phil has to do what is best for MS, but I hoped he would have some pull and skill to "make Xbox great again".

He's not and MS is showing less and less interest in creating software for their platform.

At least Nintendo and Sony seems to be going strong!

My friend has a theory that Phil is actually a sleeper agent from Sony or Nintendo to try and run Xbox into the ground.

Honestly its a bit lame that Microsoft has only 3 major games announced, well 2 actually but Forza is a given.

I think, if I was in Phil's position that I would of been tight-lipped on a lot of games last year in order to have a major launch line up for Scorpio. I mean I know its not a new generation and those games would need to come out on Xbox One, but its new tech.

At least we know Fallout 4 VR will be on Scorpio.
 

sense

Member
Er, MS will obviously show off at least two or three new games at E3 this year.

The question is really whether or not they'll go above and beyond the expected. Especially during an event where they're announcing a new HW as well.

The "expected" duo that I feel everyone is taking as assurance is Forza 7 and Halo 6. Ori 2 is the comfortable 3rd due to the vgleaks name leak.

Personally, I'm even finding disbelief at the notion that MS won't have more than that.

Something like another Sea of Thieves, ReCore, State of Decay 2, Dead Rising 4, the occasional extra 4th "new IP", '3rd party exclusive", "new game from different IP bucket" has been the norm for MS in the past E3s.

Even last year's E3 was disappointing to me because there were no new IP. I've always taken for granted MS will definitely announce at least one new IP per E3, and the fact that 2016 didn't have any was a real shock.
I am sure you will see a few new indie new ips and one of them might get people talking like remember we happy few in 2016 or ori in 2015? I think many expect atleast one third party timed exclusive from them. My wild guess was splinter cell from Ubisoft due to past relationship.
 
I am sure you will see a few new indie new ips and one of them might get people talking like remember we happy few in 2016 or ori in 2015? I think many expect atleast one third party timed exclusive from them. My wild guess was splinter cell from Ubisoft due to past relationship.

These third party exclusives don't appear to be doing much for them though. I kinda get tomb raider a bit more but did anyone benefit from dead rising 4? I have played it a little (and only a little) but the general consensus is that it's a bit uninspired that I can see.

Splinter cell is a good franchise but I feel like Microsoft aren't really gaining much from spending money on these exclusives and if ms are cutting budgets etc then they'd be better off spending the $ elsewhere
 

labaronx

Member
These third party exclusives don't appear to be doing much for them though. I kinda get tomb raider a bit more but did anyone benefit from dead rising 4? I have played it a little (and only a little) but the general consensus is that it's a bit uninspired that I can see.

Splinter cell is a good franchise but I feel like Microsoft aren't really gaining much from spending money on these exclusives and if ms are cutting budgets etc then they'd be better off spending the $ elsewhere

On top of that you run the risk of alienating an of close to 60 million on the rival console... an exclusive deal wont be cheap
 

wapplew

Member
I think we might see at lease one sequel from one of those new IP MS fund this gen.
Knack 2 happen and no many see that coming, no disrespect to insiders.
 
I think we might see at lease one sequel from one of those new IP MS fund this gen.
Knack 2 happen and no many see that coming, no disrespect to insiders.

Which one?

Insomniac doing ratchet, vr and Spider-Man
Remedy doif crossfire thing and new ip
crytek own ryse and hate ms
Scalebound didn't even get to launch
 

Castef

Banned
In a single word: weak.

They have a weak lineup, with a pair of very good/exceptional games and a lot of holes.

Why? I don't know.

They either dropped the ball and are more or less quickly exiting the games business, or they are ramping up for something big.

Don't know what to think, actually, considering that the revenues for games and services are up (IE: they are actually making money out of the Xbox business).
 
Fair enough, adds more credence to it then. Oh well, would of been nice to see what was most likely AoE back again.
I think it's better that way, the studio would have been used to make halo wars sequels. At least we won't have another studio sinking in the halo ship.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Which one?

Insomniac doing ratchet, vr and Spider-Man
Remedy doif crossfire thing and new ip
crytek own ryse and hate ms
Scalebound didn't even get to launch

Does Crytek hates MS though? I mean... did something happened during the Ryse development that would imply they won't work with them anymore? Legitimate question.

However I agree. I can't see many options out there. It seems their remaining partners are working on something else to different platforms, closed or broken.

MS may surprise us with one thing or another, can't tell if that would be enough at this point though and there's still the risk of that new IP failing to deliver expectations or being one more interrupted project.
 
ZPYaMWF.png

Do you remember that one? lol
Also Shannon deserves more flack.
 

pastrami

Member
In a single word: weak.

They have a weak lineup, with a pair of very good/exceptional games and a lot of holes.

Why? I don't know.

They either dropped the ball and are more or less quickly exiting the games business, or they are ramping up for something big.

Don't know what to think, actually, considering that the revenues for games and services are up (IE: they are actually making money out of the Xbox business).

Is the money Xbox is making coming from first party games like QB and SOD? Or is it coming from licensing fees, content distribution, subscriptions, and GaaS microtransactions? So why keep throwing money at these projects that see little return, if they recoup their money at all?
 
I am sure you will see a few new indie new ips and one of them might get people talking like remember we happy few in 2016 or ori in 2015? I think many expect atleast one third party timed exclusive from them. My wild guess was splinter cell from Ubisoft due to past relationship.

Hmm... I don't know to say this better without sounding like a bit of a jerk...

But "from an announcement perspective", I don't really care a whole lot about indie-level announcements. (Ori, Tomorrow Children, Drawn to Death, etc)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an indie-hater. Plenty of indie-games are way better than AAA games, and when it comes to enjoyment of actually playing those games, I don't look down on indie vs AAA.

But during a press conference, a small part of me groans and feels annoyed when a major new IP announcement slot from first-party is for an indie-scale game, instead of a AAA game. The game may be a 10/10, but since I haven't played it and could only see the reveal, they will never move me the same way a AAA announcement moves me. Scale matters. Perception of investment matters. That extra A in AAA matters.

I respect that games like Ori, Tomorrow Children are funded, published by the first-parties and given respectable stage presence at the conferences. But because the cost of funding these games are a fragment of a wholly new big AAA game, I look at these games and think "well, of course you should publish and fund some of these smaller studio games as a publisher to broaden your portfolio. It's a given."'

But nothing beats the confidence and bravado when games like Horizon, Scalebound, Sunset Overdrive, Death Stranding are announced, new huge AAA IPs that the publisher are staking a flag on the ground, saying that they are going to spend huge money on new properties, new games and bear that huge risk.

A lot of times the way these games are announced make me groan (CGi trailer, garbage reveal, 2 years too early, etc etc), but there is still something special about an E3 conference-level huge AAA game announcement that no one expects or no one is sure what to expect.
 

Strootman

Member
My observation about Microsoft is that they're unwilling to work through when development gets tough, and they try to do everything on the cheap. Phil talks about risk and growth, last e3 they announced 2 zombie games and another forza, not seeing much risk or growth in there, as excited as I am for State of Decay 2.

Phils well known to not like delays and some of the projects they've put out this generation just prove that: MCC, Gears UE W10, QB W10, to a certain extent ReCore, not sure on the state of FH3 but seen some say it's not good on Windows 10.

Scorpio ain't going to mean shit if they don't have any exciting software coming when PS4 is so dominant and Switch (to a lesser extent) is varied enough from the two main consoles to offer something actually different.

How they fuck you burn through partnerships with Crytek, Insomniac, Remedy and Platinum I'll never know.

Can't wait for more Minecraft skins, Halo 6, Gears 5 and Forza 7 though.

The idea of MS moving their games to be services is hilarious given they have absolutely no staying power with pretty much anything.

There are some nice titles on the horizon, but it's not good enough. They've squandered most of their partnerships and shut down most of their studios, I standby my defence of them earlier this gen, there was reason to be hopeful and they had a very promising line-up, but they clearly have a very serious problem, whether it's culture, attitude or general ineptitude and inability to stick with things.

Notice how their most successful new ip this gen was the one that launched day 1 on steam…

I think they are slowly starting to leave the industry, or at least they are moving to a different direction than sony and nintendo. Everything points out to this: they closed almost every studios they had and are constantly decreasing investments on games, they are playing super safe. They can't compete with sony like this.

I think we need to change our perception about ms. If we expect from ms the same dedication that sony has for their console, then we are just going to be disappointed.
 

blakep267

Member
I don't know what the fuck their plan is with Scorpio if they don't have a good lineup coming after its release.

Best multiplat games isn't gonna mean shit when Sony has all the marketing deals & Phil has publicly spoken about not liking it/not being good for "growth" just a few month ago so I don't think he'll go and sign loads of them. What use is best looking multiplats when MS won't even be able to show as much and all the adverts will say "PS4 - best place to play" or some other tagline?


I think SOT will do good, it's a game that's gonna be huge on twitch etc so the game will market itself. But yeah, if SOT flops I think Rare might be next on the chopping board aswell
To be fair, marketing deals aren't going to stop games from being sold on the Xbox. It's just means that Sony can bundle them. Read dead, Destiny, cod aren't not going to sell millions on the Xbox as they already have since Sony has been had rights to those games and adverts didn't stop people. Consumers aren't dumb
 

Chris1

Member
To be fair, marketing deals aren't going to stop games from being sold on the Xbox. It's just means that Sony can bundle them. Read dead, Destiny, cod aren't not going to sell millions on the Xbox as they already have since Sony has been had rights to those games

How's MS gonna be able to advertise having the better versions of games without marketing deals though? They kinda can't. Then you have Sony advertising "best place to play" on all their games, along with the PS4 history and people won't think twice.

Look at Destiny 1 or Battlefront 1 marketing deals, MS couldn't even mention the names of the games and had to use loopholes like fragrance and the "light side and dark side" controllers. If Sony was smart that'd be standard for all future deals, then what does MS have (I know they probably have AC and some others but they're far few and inbetween)?

It's gonna be a hard thing to drive home if they don't have the marketing deals to show it running on scorpio etc, imo. You can't rely on third parties selling your console but not have any marketing deals, it just doesn't work that way

I'm not saying they won't sell millions on xbox, but how is that gonna help Scorpio/xbox hardware? They would sell millions regardless of Scorpios existence. Without major exclusives and 3P marketing deals, I'm just failing to see the point of Scorpio.
 

JaggedSac

Member
Does Crytek hates MS though? I mean... did something happened during the Ryse development that would imply they won't work with them anymore? Legitimate question.

However I agree. I can't see many options out there. It seems their remaining partners are working on something else to different platforms, closed or broken.

MS may surprise us with one thing or another, can't tell if that would be enough at this point though and there's still the risk of that new IP failing to deliver expectations or being one more interrupted project.

Crytek hates everyone, even their own employees.
 
I think they are slowly starting to leave the industry, or at least they are moving to a different direction than sony and nintendo. Everything points out to this: they closed almost every studios they had and are constantly decreasing investments on games, they are playing super safe. They can't compete with sony like this.

I think we need to change our perception about ms. If we expect from ms the same dedication that sony has for their console, then we are just going to be disappointed.

I agree with a lot of this and this years E3 will probably be my least anticipated or hyped, ever.

Maybe they are lulling us into a false sense of security and then.....

wabam.jpeg


Really im just.....

200_s.gif
 

Zedox

Member
I think they are slowly starting to leave the industry, or at least they are moving to a different direction than sony and nintendo. Everything points out to this: they closed almost every studios they had and are constantly decreasing investments on games, they are playing super safe. They can't compete with sony like this.

I think we need to change our perception about ms. If we expect from ms the same dedication that sony has for their console, then we are just going to be disappointed.

I don't think they are leaving the industry, I think that they aren't making Xbox what it was anymore. Being more of a platform and less than a IP factory, console holder. Their biggest announcements have been platform features, not really games. I'm interested in what they have to show at E3, but it seems that it's more of a 3rd party box than a 1st party one that has the benefits of a 3rd party.
 

wapplew

Member
Which one?

Insomniac doing ratchet, vr and Spider-Man
Remedy doif crossfire thing and new ip
crytek own ryse and hate ms
Scalebound didn't even get to launch

I don't know, maybe different studio to handle those IP?
MS always able to discover some out of left field studio to step up. No one know who playground game or Moon studio are and they become well known studio now.
 

blakep267

Member
How's MS gonna be able to advertise having the better versions of games without marketing deals though? They kinda can't. Then you have Sony advertising "best place to play" on all their games, along with the PS4 history and people won't think twice.

Look at Destiny 1 or Battlefront 1 marketing deals, MS couldn't even mention the names of the games and had to use loopholes like fragrance and the "light side and dark side" controllers. If Sony was smart that'd be standard for all future deals, then what does MS have (I know they probably have AC and some others but they're far few and inbetween)?

It's gonna be a hard thing to drive home if they don't have the marketing deals to show it running on scorpio etc, imo. You can't rely on third parties selling your console but not have any marketing deals, it just doesn't work that way

I'm not saying they won't sell millions on xbox, but how is that gonna help Scorpio/xbox hardware? They would sell millions regardless of Scorpios existence.
im pretty sure EA mentioned that Battlefield and FIFA would have pro upgrades the day of the unveiling and those games have Xbox marketing. Nobody is saying they are going to be on stage. But don't act like activision EA etc aren't going to be mum about any upgrades that are possible for the games.

Also Microsoft can say what games have Scorpio upgrades. That's not actually marketing the games. They talk about Battlefront and Destiny coming to the platform all the time. They aren't forbidden from uttering a name
 

watdaeff4

Member
To be fair, marketing deals aren't going to stop games from being sold on the Xbox. It's just means that Sony can bundle them. Read dead, Destiny, cod aren't not going to sell millions on the Xbox as they already have since Sony has been had rights to those games and adverts didn't stop people. Consumers aren't dumb

To be fair, some of us are not well-informed. Up until after it was released I thought that Destiny was a PS exclusive. Granted this is an N=1; but it does show that kind of stuff can have an effect on the average joe that doesn't frequent gaming media/sites (which I did not at that point in my life)
 

Chris1

Member
im pretty sure EA mentioned that Battlefield and FIFA would have pro upgrades the day of the unveiling and those games have Xbox marketing. Nobody is saying they are going to be on stage. But don't act like activision EA etc aren't going to be mum about any upgrades that are possible for the games.

Also Microsoft can say what games have Scorpio upgrades. That's not actually marketing the games. They talk about Battlefront and Destiny coming to the platform all the time. They aren't forbidden from uttering a name
Destiny 2, Battlefront 2, RDR 2 might have Scorpio upgrades, but according to all the marketing PS4 is still the best place to play, with pro upgrades. This is where the problem lies, everyone is still going to think PS4 is the best place to play those games, even if it's not necessarily true. And like watdaeff said, a lot of people thought Destiny 1 was exclusive.

And to be honest the way Phil speaks about third party deals and exclusive content deals being bad for the industry, I wouldn't be surprised if FIFA and Battlefield goes to PS4 aswell whenever that deal ends.
 

Chobel

Member
Just to show how effective are these marketing deals when done right: Until recently, I had no idea that Crash collection isn't PS4 exclusive.
 

Chobel

Member
Wait it's not?

It's not. Officially no other platform was announced beside PS4, but there's no mention of the word "exclusive" at all, and we know platform holders like to throw that word any chance they can. Not Crash though, never once it was said (or written) that it's PS4 exclusive.
 

sam777

Member
It's not. Officially no other platform was announced beside PS4, but there's no mention of the word "exclusive" at all, and we know platform holders like to throw that word any chance they can. Not Crash though, never once it was said (or written) that it's PS4 exclusive.

I accidently hovered over your name loool. So is Crash 100% coming to Xbox? As the only preorders I have seen for this have been for PS4.
 

see5harp

Member
I don't think they are leaving the industry, I think that they aren't making Xbox what it was anymore. Being more of a platform and less than a IP factory, console holder. Their biggest announcements have been platform features, not really games. I'm interested in what they have to show at E3, but it seems that it's more of a 3rd party box than a 1st party one that has the benefits of a 3rd party.

It has ALWAYS been a 3rd party box dating back to 360. I'm pretty much locked into the ecosystem at this point but I'm not going to pretend like it hasn't been this way since halfway into the 360 generation. They make a good franchise like Halo or Forza and they run it into the ground.
 

Chobel

Member
I accidently hovered over your name loool. So is Crash 100% coming to Xbox? As the only preorders I have seen for this have been for PS4.

Since there's no "exclusive" or "console exclusive" in its description, that pretty much means it's coming to another console. Whether it's XB1, Switch or maybe both? That's unknown.
 

Zedox

Member
It has ALWAYS been a 3rd party box dating back to 360. I'm pretty much locked into the ecosystem at this point but I'm not going to pretend like it hasn't been this way since halfway into the 360 generation. They make a good franchise like Halo or Forza and they run it into the ground.

Well, at the beginning of this generation it seemed that it wasn't going to be that way based off of the games that they were showing. They have released 1st party content but it just wasn't great, or I should say up to the standards of what people excited it to be based on how they marketed it. 
 

pswii60

Member
they bought minecraft
they would buy rockstar (including rockstar IPs) instantly if given the opportunity
they would maybe consider buying nintendo

everything else you're probably right
Haven't they already tried buying Nintendo?

I also wonder what they bought Minecraft for? They haven't made it Xbox/Windows device exclusive.
 
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