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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

S

Sydle

Member
I wonder what happened to Battletoads. Xav, who said Rare was working on a pirate game way ahead of the SoT reveal, was certain it was being made by Rare or in partnership with Rare as recent as earlier this year.

EDIT: OP, it may not be worth putting in your post, but MS did start up other internal studios such as Good Science, Fun[ction], Leap Experience Pioneers, SOTA (state of the art), Platform Next, etc. that were Kinect and then HoloLens focused. I think they've all been dissolved, or shifted to non-game development when HoloLens became productivity focused.

Com_Raven said:
So Decisive Games is officially dead? Shame if so, as their AAA big IP eye game they were hiring for (so Age or Rise of Nations) had me excited :(
Click to expand...

Apparently so...http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=205259927&postcount=833
 
Jaguar Victory

Jaguar Victory

Member
J

JlNX

Member
Has anything came of Casey Hudson joining Xbox as a creative director, he was supposed to lead game development and creative solutions for Hololens, as well as him hinting that he would be overseeing a console project. With the recent developments of the studios set up to make games for Hololens seemingly now focused on applications instead, due to Microsoft realising it won't be consumer ready for a number of years (refocusing on the enterprise market.) What would he being doing.

Another creative director Ken Lobb, lead the killer instinct team to release in 2013 before starting up on the phantom dust reboot. But with its cancellation and the new phantom dust simply being a remaster of the original that would't need his involvement, what would he be heading up. Now given his love of bring back old ip's and his history with Rare I would be willing to bet its a Rare ip, hence shinobi's comment on ip factory with Sea of thieves and a new ip in development at Rare another rare ip being developed by a second party would back up that statement.
 
Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
HeisenbergWW62 said:
Looking ahead we can pretty much predict their E3
Halo 6 announcement
Forza 7 announcement
Sea of Thieves
Scalebound
Crackdown 3
State of Decay 2
Another live demo of 6 year old Minecraft
Third party games
Scorpio stuff
5 minute segment of new Xbox live features

I doubt we see Rare's other new IP until SoT is out. Hopefully the have a surprise or two "second party" new IP announcements because if they don't, yikes. As someone who became an xbox fan with the 360, they really lost me after last E3's abysmal announcements. Would like to see if they can pull me back in
Click to expand...

This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.

You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
 
Jaguar Victory

Jaguar Victory

Member
krang said:
Playground's second game is a new IP, right? So it couldn't possibly be Fable...
Click to expand...

I want a cart battle/racer.

Also can someone make a new California Games?

I want a new Skate or Die also. Give it a story like GTA or Bully with Tony Hawk style skating elements.

MS needs a story driven game like uncharted our tomb raider. Doesn't have to be climbing adventure, just something story driven.
 
K

krang

Member
JlNX said:
Has anything came of Casey Hudson joining Xbox as a creative director, he was supposed to lead game development and creative solutions for Hololens, as well as him hinting that he would be overseeing a console project. With the recent developments of the studios set up to make games for Hololens seemingly now focused on applications instead, due to Microsoft realising it won't be consumer ready for a number of years (refocusing on the enterprise market.) What would he being doing.

Another creative director Ken Lobb, lead the killer instinct team to release in 2013 before starting up on the phantom dust reboot. But with its cancellation and the new phantom dust simply being a remaster of the original that would't need his involvement, what would he be heading up. Now given his love of bring back old ip's and his history with Rare I would be willing to bet its a Rare ip, hence shinobi's comment on ip factory with Sea of thieves and a new ip in development at Rare another rare ip being developed by a second party would back up that statement.
Click to expand...

Also Joe Staten. ReCore couldn't have taken up all his time, and even if it did he'd be onto something else by now.
 
B

Bits N Pieces

Member
Trago said:
There are a ton of talented industry veterans over at 343i. It would be a shame if they were stuck on Halo forever.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see a third person action game set in the Halo universe. 343i don't need to keep on pumping out sequels' in the Chiefs story. They have a canvass where they could build any type of game they want.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Multi-project development appear to be something a lot of devs set out to do, but more often than not fail at actually achieving the multi-project dream of getting two games out in a time when AAA games are just struggling to ship with all the resources available to a single studio and more.

It's easy to imagine setting up second projects or second teams to work on multiple games at once, but it always sound like towards the tail end of any project, 95% of the studio have to refocus on getting that one game out the door by the end of the day.
 
S

Sydle

Member
Bits N Pieces said:
I'd love to see a third person action game set in the Halo universe. 343i don't need to keep on pumping out sequels' in the Chiefs story. They have a canvass where they could build any type of game they want.
Click to expand...

Maybe that's where they're headed? Bonnie Ross made a comment in 2015 I believe that they'd like to move away from numbered games after Halo 6 (I think her words were about wrapping up the current trilogy first), so one can imagine that it opens the door for them to explore more of the universe from different points of view.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Sydle said:
Maybe that's where they're headed? Bonnie Ross made a comment in 2015 I believe that they'd like to move away from numbered games after Halo 6, so one can imagine that it opens the door for them to explore more of the universe from different points of view.
Click to expand...

Eh, I took that more of a "maybe we should consider dropping numbers at a certain point like how AssCreed and CoD does so that we don't alienate newcomers daunted by the fact that this is the 11th chapter of Chief's story."
 
Z

Zukkoyaki

Member
Ideally I'd like Phil to take the stage at E3 and after talking about the Scorpio announce a slate of partner studios who are teaming up with Microsoft to create new IP for the Xbox ecosystem. As for who they would partner with I have no idea. Maybe something like Mistwalker/CyberConnect2, Yager and Crytek's last big studio; they may not be Insomniac or Remedy but all of these guys have released great games before. Basically an initiative to bring new games to the platform, shore up the first party sector and give gamers some peace of mind that cool new stuff is coming.

They wouldn't even need trailers or anything. Basically something like their Scorpio vid last year. Their currently announced slate of exclusives plus Forza 7 and a tease of Halo 6 is plenty to carry an E3 conference.
 
S

Sydle

Member
Nightengale said:
Eh, I took that more of a "maybe we should consider dropping numbers at a certain point like how AssCreed and CoD does so that we don't alienate newcomers daunted by the fact that this is the 11th chapter of Chief's story."
Click to expand...

You may be right...

"At some point, we do want to stop numbering. Especially on Xbox One," Ross said in the latest issue of OXM (via Gamer Headlines). "If I had my druthers, we wouldn't have called Halo 4 that--we really look at that game as the start of where [Master Chief]'s going. At some point we need to drop the number and still [let you] know you've got a big story coming."

Dropping the number for future games won't necessarily be indicative of Master Chief's presence (or absence) in them. In the case of a Halo game that carries a subtitle but no number, Ross said, "It might still be a Master Chief story. I'm just saying, at some point we don't want to be Halo 17, when Master Chief's like 80. We're not Final Fantasy, we can't do it. So we kind of open that door--it doesn't mean it'll be a Master Chief story or not. That's something for us to decide in the future." - Link
Click to expand...
 
J

JlNX

Member
Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.

You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
Click to expand...

Well like Sadle was saying, Xav who said Rare was working on a pirate game also said Battletoads was in development. This lines up with ken Lobb needing a project and his love of reviving old ip's and history with rare. This also further agrees with Shinobi's statement of Rare being a ip factory, and with rare working on sea of thieves as well as another ip internally it would need to be done by a second party which would lead to Ken Lobb.
 
P

pixellated_man

Member
Good job OP. As a new(ish) xbox one owner, hope this list gets updated regularly. Will sub for sure.
As for Microsofts investment in it's studios, it is far from what we were promised at the start of the generation and seems more like a factory line for making sequels / spinoffs from already established i.p.
 
J

JlNX

Member
Banjo-Kazooie said:
Their website makes it seem like they are doing Hololens stuff
Click to expand...

Banjo it appears Turn 10 is around 70 or so developers, probably slightly higher now. But since they rely so heavily on outsourcing I don't see them growing much.
But they still feel like a small, nimble team – they're about 70 full-time employees, rising to 400 including contractors as the production effort rises during the game.
Read more at http://blogs.microsoft.com/next/2011/09/16/forza-motorsport-pt1-turn-10-studios/#1UQopCQUJTbGFxOC.99
Click to expand...
 
P

Peterpan

Member
JlNX said:
Banjo it appears Turn 10 is around 70 or so developers, probably slight higher now. But since they rely so heavily on outsourcing I don't see them growing much.
Click to expand...
Why do so many people say they huge and so much bigger than Polophony? Seem awfully small.
 
J

JlNX

Member
Peterpan said:
Why do so many people say they huge and so much bigger than Polophony, seem awfully small.
Click to expand...

It was after Forza motorsport 3 got amazing reviews, a lot of Gran Turismo fanboys came up with "Turn 10 is 450 people and they still have less features than the next Gran Turismo and Forza 3 isn't polished" of which people pointed out they released two games in that time frame and Forza 3 was incredibly polished.

I also think Polyphony is up to 140 developers now. Also Turn 10 is moving into a new studio in a few months, so Forza 7 development must be going well with that sort of shake up. Plus that Ford GT they are getting for the lobby of the new studio is awesome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa-N0Fh1yEk
 
H

Hoo-doo

Banned
JlNX said:
It was after Forza motorsport 3 got amazing reviews, a lot of Gran Turismo fanboys came up with "Turn 10 is 450 people and they still have less features than the next Gran Turismo and Forza 3 isn't polished" of which people pointed out they released two games in that time frame and Forza 3 was incredibly polished.
Click to expand...

Source for this? First time I read this.
 
J

JlNX

Member
Hoo-doo said:
Source for this? First time I read this.
Click to expand...

You can search across the old Gamespot forums, there is a ton of those threads from what I remember of 2009. But I definitely remember the features argument and the team size argument.

Features argument made some sense.
 
L

Louis Cyphre

Banned
Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.

You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
Click to expand...

This all seems very reasonable. I just hope not too much is centered on Scorpio because then it seems like a whole new generation begins without dealing with the current one.
 
B

blakep267

Member
Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
    [
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.


You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
Click to expand...

- I doubt there'd be Gears DLC
- KOTOR probably won't happen since Disney games have to go through EA first
- I wouldn't bet on any MCC on PC stuff
- There is going to be something Halo related. Whether its 3 remade or 6 teaser. Halo is a staple. its going to get a place at E3. Just like Minecraft

everything else sounds fairly reasonable
 
Z

zeexlash

Member
This lineup looks pretty good to me.. Scalebound, Sea of Thieves and Crackdown all have plenty of potential, I forget where we're at with Phantom Dust but hopefully that'll be worth the wait too.
 
C

CalamityPixel

Member
Really wish 343i, Turn 10 and The Coalition were multi IP studios. Their franchises need space to breathe, I've always thought their work cycle should be:

Release Established IP- Release a new IP

aaaand repeat. Would give time for people not to be overwhelmed on franchises like Halo and Gears and also give time for them to release an instalment that isn't rushed or lacking features.

Would also love to see Turn 10 (or even Playground games) work on a PGR game.
 
Salty Hippo

Salty Hippo

Member
blakep267 said:
- I doubt there'd be Gears DLC
- KOTOR probably won't happen since Disney games have to go through EA first
- I wouldn't bet on any MCC on PC stuff
- There is going to be something Halo related. Whether its 3 remade or 6 teaser. Halo is a staple. its going to get a place at E3. Just like Minecraft

everything else sounds fairly reasonable
Click to expand...

For the record, here's my degree of belief for the keynote I built, given Microsoft's history.

What I genuinely believe is reasonable or likely is bolded.
What I consider to be highly unlikely is left unchanged.
What I think is outwordly impossible is underlined.

Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • [*]Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
    [*]Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
    [*]Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
    [*]Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
    [*]Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
    [*]Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
    [*]Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
    [*]Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
    [*]ID@Xbox montage
    [*]Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
    [*]State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
    [*]Scalebound demo     that looks good for once.
    [*]Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
    [*]Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.
Click to expand...
 
J

JlNX

Member
Salty Hippo said:
For the record, here's my degree of belief for the keynote I built, given Microsoft's history.

What I genuinely believe is reasonable or likely is bolded.
What I consider to be highly unlikely is left unchanged.
What I think is outwordly impossible is underlined.
Click to expand...

I don't think we are going to see playgrounds new game for another 2 years at earliest. Especially with Phil saying they don't want to show games to early, that would be the definition of showing games to early. You don't want another phantom dust issue, or delays crackdown, scalebound etc.

I agree with the rest of your bolded's as very likely, and i would assume that as a minimum given that no new ip's were announced at E3 2016. Microsoft usually has 2-3 new ip's each year this generation, I only hope there bigger than Recore.
 
S

SOR5

Member
Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.

You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
Click to expand...

This is ace, but don't expect the PC side of their stuff to get better any time soon, I think it's going to stay bad, massive shame
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
JlNX said:
Banjo another studio that should be added to the list is Microsoft studios, in a recent interview Shannon Loftis said Microsoft studios has a team of 90 developers.

I don't think decisive being dissolved rules out a new Rise of nations or AOE, Skybox seems to be doing well with AOE expansions. They could take up reins of one of the ip's.
Click to expand...
MS has a lot of internal employees that work with their partners on the games. For example, Joe Staten was the head writer for Recore. Joe works at MS Studios, not Armature. MS does this with all of their partners. They aren't making anything themselves per say, just colabing on titles with others
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
Sydle said:
I wonder what happened to Battletoads. Xav, who said Rare was working on a pirate game way ahead of the SoT reveal, was certain it was being made by Rare or in partnership with Rare as recent as earlier this year.

EDIT: OP, it may not be worth putting in your post, but MS did start up other internal studios such as Good Science, Fun[ction], Leap Experience Pioneers, SOTA (state of the art), Platform Next, etc. that were Kinect and then HoloLens focused. I think they've all been dissolved, or shifted to non-game development when HoloLens became productivity focused.



Apparently so...http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=205259927&postcount=833
Click to expand...
That's the post I've been looking for, thanks a bunch!

And ya I didn't include any of those others since they all moved to Hololens/disbanded quietly. Nothing to really say about them
 
J

JlNX

Member
Banjo-Kazooie said:
MS has a lot of internal employees that work with their partners on the games. For example, Joe Staten was the head writer for Recore. Joe works at MS Studios, not Armature. MS does this with all of their partners. They aren't making anything themselves per say, just colabing on titles with others
Click to expand...

Thats a shame, I wish they would expanded it into as Sony Japan style studio. I'm guessing the project spark team and dissolved decisive team are part of those 90 developers?
 
A

Anticol

Banned
This thread is kinda sad, this is basically the reason I change to PS at the end of last generation. The last three years of 360, all under Phil's umbrella, were truly a window of the future, such a shame. Looks like nothing is changing tho, so no regrets in switching.
 
H

HeisenbergWW62

Banned
Anticol said:
This thread is kinda sad, this is basically the reason I change to PS at the end of last generation. The last three years of 360, all under Phil's umbrella, were truly a window of the future, such a shame. Looks like nothing is changing tho, so no regrets in switching.
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Yep. I sold my Xbox One after last E3. I bought pretty much all the multiplats on PS4 anyway so I lost basically nothing
 
O

Omnistalgic

Member
Wow...puts it in perspective how MS aren't really doubling down on internal stuff. Guess 2nd party deals are just easier at this point. I think it's really important though, especially increasing brand perception.

Not a fan of MS strategy
 
K

KAL2006

Banned
Anticol said:
This thread is kinda sad, this is basically the reason I change to PS at the end of last generation. The last three years of 360, all under Phil's umbrella, were truly a window of the future, such a shame. Looks like nothing is changing tho, so no regrets in switching.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm the same

Was a huge fan of 360 when it destroyed PS3 with exclusives. Even random Japan games like Takes of Vesperia was on 360. Near the end of the cycle last gen Sony caught up. And it seems Sony has stayed ahead so far this gen with games like Bloodborne and Uncharted 4. With upcoming games like Spiderman and God of War it looks like I don't have to worry about switching to XB1. Scorpio graphics will be better but graphics alone isn't something that would get me to switch.
 
J

JlNX

Member
Anticol said:
This thread is kinda sad, this is basically the reason I change to PS at the end of last generation. The last three years of 360, all under Phil's umbrella, were truly a window of the future, such a shame. Looks like nothing is changing tho, so no regrets in switching.
Click to expand...

To be fair Phil is the guy that pushed for diversity last gen with his partnership with remedy, and him working with Mistwalker to make LO and BD etc. I think its better to look at this gen and the coming year (2017 looks pretty great), with E3 unveiling 2018 before we jump to conclusions about Phil's Role. Also Shannon Loftis is now head of first party now Phil is head. Her comments on what she thinks about new ip's and first party development is heartening.

Edit: Also Phil was head of Microsoft European studios before becoming head of first party, up until 2008. Rare and Lionhead had their best years under him.
 
B

Banjo-Kazooie

Member
Salty Hippo said:
This is the kind of keynote MS would need to make me believe in them:


  • Open big with a huge brand new IP from a brand new internal Microsoft studio, or from a great second-party partner; AAA, strong single player component, has to look incredible.
  • Announce and show a completely reworked, dedicated PC Storefront that rivals Steam.
  • Announce Halo MCC, 5, Sunset, FH2 and RR on PC; Two of which should be "available now".
  • Announce digital BC on PC with all compatible games being sold on their store eventually.
  • Announce Playground's new game with a trailer, concept looks great, fully Xbox/Win10 exclusive, no date.
  • Crackdown shown in a lenghy demo that looks like an awesome thing that was never done before.
  • Forza 7 annouce and trailer.
  • Announce a new AA IP in a smaller second-party parnership, 40 dollar game, same vein of Recore.
  • Third-party multiplat stuff, kept to a minimum
  • Gears 4 standalone DLC
  • Announce at least one nostalgia project, smartly-budget and reasonably priced; It could be Battletoads done by a competent developer like WayForward, 2D, beat 'em up in the vein of MRB, or a new Lost Odyssey or a new Rise of Nations.
  • Announce plans to remaster the best Og Xbox games, starting with 3 high caliber ones like Panzer Orta, Crimson Skies and Rallisport Challenge, all shown in a single trailer.
  • Ashen new trailer (Hopefully Cuphead will be out by now)
  • Brand new promising ID@Xbox exclusive game.
  • ID@Xbox montage
  • Ori and the WotW announced, trailer.
  • State of Decay 2 demo/trailer
  • Scalebound demo that looks good for once.
  • Sea of Thieves; I don't care what they do here, they need to concisely show what the game is about and get the audience hyped as fuck.
  • Closing, blahblahblah, I'm so proud, look at my shirt.
  • One more thing and it's either a new Banjo shown in an awesome gameplay trailer or KOTOR 3 by Obsidian (this one could be just a teaser).
  • Don't fucking tease Halo 6, even if it's coming out in 2018. Let the name Halo breath for a while.

You're welcome Phil. Keep Perfect Dark 2, Crimson Skies 2, KI4, Fable 4, a Zelda-killer new IP from Rare and Halo 6: Rise of the Mega Bloks for next year.
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Makes too much sense.

So naturally won't happen :p
 
B

blakep267

Member
JlNX said:
I don't think we are going to see playgrounds new game for another 2 years at earliest. Especially with Phil saying they don't want to show games to early, that would be the definition of showing games to early. You don't want another phantom dust issue, or delays crackdown, scalebound etc.

I agree with the rest of your bolded's as very likely, and i would assume that as a minimum given that no new ip's were announced at E3 2016. Microsoft usually has 2-3 new ip's each year this generation, I only hope there bigger than Recore.
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I expect 1 new IP to be shown that's a 2018 game. Also out of Crackdown, Scalebound, Sea of thieves and State of decay, I expect one of them to be delayed into 2018.

Making 2018, Halo, New Ip, 1 of the 4 above games
 
daTRUballin

daTRUballin

Member
Sydle said:
I wonder what happened to Battletoads. Xav, who said Rare was working on a pirate game way ahead of the SoT reveal, was certain it was being made by Rare or in partnership with Rare as recent as earlier this year.
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I expected Battletoads at E3 2015. Didn't happen. I expected Battletoads at E3 2016 due to all the rumors and insider information (including Xav's info). Didn't happen. If we don't see Battletoads at E3 2017, I reckon the game probably doesn't exist.

In fact, I'm not going to give my hopes up for any Rare IPs to appear at E3. If these last two E3s have taught me anything, it's to never have high expectations for anything. Considering this will be the last E3 before Scorpio launches, I would assume MS will be showing a bunch of Scorpio titles during the conference. This would be a really great time to show some revived Rare IPs, but I'm not setting myself up for disappointment again.
 
J

JlNX

Member
blakep267 said:
I expect 1 new IP to be shown that's a 2018 game. Also out of Crackdown, Scalebound, Sea of thieves and State of decay, I expect one of them to be delayed into 2018.

Making 2018, Halo, New Ip, 1 of the 4 above games
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It would have to be State of Decay, they said they are announcing the release date at E3, I don't think it will be that quick of a turn around. I see it taking the quantum break, halo wars Q1 space. 2018 should be halo, two new ip's, SOD2, killer instinct sequel (hunch based on Iron Galaxies development recently) and Ori 2 if it's not a 2017 release.

Edit: Oh and Forza Horizon 4 of course (Hoping for Tokyo.)
 
B

blakep267

Member
JlNX said:
It would have to be State of Decay, they said they are announcing the release date at E3, I don't think it will be that quick of a turn around. I see it taking the quantum break, halo wars Q1 space. 2018 should be halo, two new ip's, SOD2, killer instinct sequel (hunch based on Iron Galaxies development recently) and Ori 2 if it's not a 2017 release.

Edit: Oh and Forza Horizon 4 of course (Hoping for Tokyo.)
Click to expand...
I mean presumably Hndead labs started working on SoD2 in 2014. So it should be ready by this year. Sunset overdrive, recore, etc had the same year turnaround time between release. I think it's more likely that Sea of thieves had a Beta this year and full release next year.
 
C

chaosmaster(1)

Member
I'm thinking Sea of Thieves is spring 2018 because the game just previously had a small scale alpha and the gameplay systems and full fledged quest design have not been demonstrated to the public yet. We've seen just ship battles so far. I think a game of the ambition Rare is pursuing needs time and with how packed this fall is especially with a similar service type game Destiny it would be wise for it to release in 2018.
 
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