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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
jayu26 said:
Well then.

Who is taking bets? My money is on Crackdown.
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That one makes the most sense. Development is obviously troubled in some way. The second entry was not received well. They no longer have anything to prove regarding cloud processing because it's pretty much dead now, and CD was the vehicle for that. Just doesn't really seem like a smart investment at this point.
 
E

EvB

Member
jayu26 said:
Well then.

Who is taking bets? My money is on Crackdown.
Click to expand...

If one of the big games were to go I'd say Crackdown, as I think is the most likely one, as it's a relic of the Cloud powered days. Having 2 games made by 2 studios, packaged to look like 1 game is probably somewhat of a nightmare.
 
O

OldRoutes

Member
sense said:
We have very reliable leaks in the npd threads and the source is not what you are pointing out. There is a reason why MS hasn't released numbers for these games because if they were great, they would be shouting from the rooftops. Please tell me you are not naive enough to believe these games are doing close to what they were doing in the previous gen.
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Of course I don't believe that ; Xbox One doesn't even have close to the same user-base as Xbox 360 had when Halo 3 released.

However, I'd like to see those reliable leaks if you could find them! Thanks!
 
J

JlNX

Member
shinobi602 said:
List may be getting smaller soon.

giphy.gif
Click to expand...

Can't be 343, Coalition or Turn 10. Mojang definitely not, or Rare because they are in full production and have had great response with SOT. Are they closing down casual games studios? They can't close down any second party studios. Cancelled second party game? Scalebound and Crackdown are too far ahead in to production and are almost finished, halo wars is coming out in a month. State of decay definitely isn't cancelled given that they have said they will be announcing the release date at E3. Phantom Dust HD cancelled again? really? Moons working on their next game as hinted at. Iron galaxy and Playground are still working for Microsoft. I'm going to guess Armature or Phantom Dust HD.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Hoo-doo said:
Actually, now that I think of it, it could be Crackdown. That game seems to have dropped off the map.
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I was gonna say I don't think it's crackdown, the developer just said a few weeks ago it's coming out Holiday 2017

But then I remembered Lionhead, Phantom Dust, etc.. The developers wouldn't even know until it happened.

I don't think it's Crackdown.. but oh boy if it is after all that cloud shit. Absolute shit storm waiting to happen. Even I'd give MS shit for it and I've been one of the people saying "Wait till Crackdown before saying it's fake"

It's also worth noting there was supposed to be "multiplayer" this summer which was dropped and forgotten about in an instant, and when Aaron was questioned about it he responded with some nonsense like "I don't remember what we said about Crackdown, but it's 2017" but I think it's hard to forget something like that so it's pretty obvious he was just trying to shove it under the rug.... If it's cancelled this would make sense.

sense said:
We have very reliable leaks in the npd threads and the source is not what you are pointing out. There is a reason why MS hasn't released numbers for these games because if they were great, they would be shouting from the rooftops. Please tell me you are not naive enough to believe these games are doing close to what they were doing in the previous gen.
Click to expand...

To be fair Forza Horizon 3 was also the biggest Forza launch and they didn't really say anything about that or shout it from the rooftops. I think MS is just done giving numbers, good or bad. At least for the time being. But yeah, Halo and Gears definitely disappointed.
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
The team probably couldn't get the Internet Bandwidth requirements low enough for the game to even run successfully. idk,

but that will be sad if its totally scrapped :(
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Crackdown is the easy guess in terms of cancellation candidates.

I mean, aside from "dev diary" style snippets of assets moving around in a playable environment, we've seen no gameplay from that game at all yet.
 
S

sense

Member
Crackdown 3 would be my guess but to be fair something like gears cannot be sustainable as well if the sales are around 2 million.
 
C

Chris1

Member
sense said:
Crackdown 3 would be my guess but to be fair something like gears cannot be sustainable as well if the sales are around 2 million.
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Microtransactions. Gears 4 will probably be the most profitable Gears game when all is said and done because of them.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Hoo-doo said:
For microtransactions to bring in the big bucks, the game must still sell a ton.
It's not a universal cheat code for more money.
Click to expand...

2+ million is a lot of copies. It's not as good as it should be doing, but it's more than enough to rake in the mtx dough.

Also, don't forget the early access shit aswell. And the useless season pass which no doubt tricked some people thinking they were getting DLC with it.

Gears will be fine. When it sells like 200k copies it'll be time to worry, but 2M? it'll do just fine.
 
S

sense

Member
OldRoutes said:
Of course I don't believe that ; Xbox One doesn't even have close to the same user-base as Xbox 360 had when Halo 3 released.

However, I'd like to see those reliable leaks if you could find them! Thanks!
Click to expand...
I can't at the moment as I am not at desktop but Look at October 2016 npd thread and November 2015 npd thread where insiders who have leaked in the past have reported the exact launch numbers for both gears 4 and halo 5 alongside hardware numbers and other software numbers.
 
F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
Just thought about CD's release this year too. It's not a great time because I'm guessing they don't have a Halo 6 beta ready to package with it to replicate the success of the original.

But I don't think MS can delay it until 2018 to coincide with it.
 
J

JlNX

Member
sense said:
Maybe take the emotion out and discuss with an open mind? I am sure the games were great and I do not doubt you and many hardcore fans of these franchises really loved them. The point is they are on a downward trend and there is not much they can do to revitalize these franchises and bring excitement to newcomers and lapsed 360 players. God of war needed that refresh because if it was the same old gameplay in a new setting there just wouldn't be any excitement except for the hardcore fans. I see so many people saying, I am not a god of war fan but the new one has my interest. I am just not sure what halo or gears can change up dramatically so the only option for ms is getting behind a new ip in a big way.


We have very reliable leaks in the npd threads and the source is not what you are pointing out. There is a reason why MS hasn't released numbers for these games because if they were great, they would be shouting from the rooftops. Please tell me you are not naive enough to believe these games are doing close to what they were doing in the previous gen.
Click to expand...

Sorry I didn't mean for it to come out as emotional but "running into the ground" means shitting out worse sequels to me. Sorry if that wasn't the way you want it to come across.
Reading through this thread with people bring personal bias of wether or not they like a ip is frustrating when trying to explain why Microsoft are a business first an foremost. But I agree with them needing a revamp, Rod said himself gears 4 was a save game, and that he tends for the next game to do a lot of new. He just wanted to prove to Gears fans they could do it rather than do what 343 did. Halo I think is in a different position they may see revitalizing Halo as Halo wars 2 (spinoffs) But Halo 5 does a lot new. I think it was just the reviews, story and bad word of mouth. Which I think they have repaired with post launch support, I think if halo 6 doesn't knock it out of the park then the downward spiral will continue.
 
W

Wedzi

Banned
My money is on Crackdown as well. Isn't the studio behind the game all in on cloud development powering games? Cloudengine or something like that?

But if I'm crazy, I am worried about the Coalition. Gears 4 didn't sell well and I'm guessing it was a fairly big investment. Hell besides Halo, Minecraft, and solitaire I'm worried about everything MS is doing!
 
wapplew

wapplew

Member
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
If it's crackdown that's 2 out if 3 for Microsofts e3 2014(phantom dust&crackdown) Scalebound will likely bomb so that's just a shame
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Forget Scalebound meh gameplay trailer for a while, if MS use those titles to push Scorpio in the holidays, facing RDR2, Destiny 2 and new Star war?
It's going to bomb regardless of quality just like Titanfall2. Please release Scalebound in summer of sometime less competitive.
 
F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
wapplew said:
Forget Scalebound meh gameplay trailer for a while, if MS use those titles to push Scorpio in the holidays, facing RDR2, Destiny 2 and new Star war?
It's going to bomb regardless of quality just like Titanfall2. Please release Scalebound in summer of sometime less competitive.
Click to expand...

Yeah summer is the perfect time.
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
wapplew said:
Forget Scalebound meh gameplay trailer for a while, if MS use those titles to push Scorpio in the holidays, facing RDR2, Destiny 2 and new Star war?
It's going to bomb regardless of quality just like Titanfall2. Please release Scalebound in summer of sometime less competitive.
Click to expand...
We've seen it what twice? Have ppl played it at all yet? Unless they ramp it up now I don't see it this summer
 
J

JlNX

Member
For people saying Coalition, it won't be your forgetting that they also released that gears remaster that did well which also came with micro-transactions.

For people saying Crackdown, it was only two weeks ago they were on a charity livestream at Ms headquarter with heads of publishing next to them talking about the game releasing in 2017 and features of the game it's development and they were joking around. Even saying it might come out earlier in 2017 than holiday.
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
JlNX said:
And why couldn't Sony have just funded a new first or second party studio to make a new ip you were equally excited about. Your not going to like what every studio makes that the reality of life, were not in a fake video game world. Also comparing a studio that in over ten years has only released one good game to Halo is not a good comparison. Very different fanbases.
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I'm specifically talking about that studio and what I like/don't like. Sony has funded third party deals that have equally excited me but that has nothing to do with GG and how I feel about their output.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Wedzi said:
My money is on Crackdown as well. Isn't the studio behind the game all in on cloud development powering games? Cloudengine or something like that?
Click to expand...

Crackdown is being developed by 3 studios.

Cloudgine = technology/engine solutions provider.
Reagant Games = small team less than 20 people composed of ex-Crackdown devs. Presumably they are the core creatives/leads on the project.
Sumo Digital = large independent studio. Presumably they're basically ones building the game out of Reagant's direction.
 
SEGAvangelist

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
JlNX said:
For people saying Coalition, it won't be your forgetting that they also released that gears remaster that did well which also came with micro-transactions.

For people saying Crackdown, it was only two weeks ago they were on a charity livestream at Ms headquarter with heads of publishing next to them talking about the game releasing next year and features of the game it's development and they were joking around. Even saying it might come out earlier in 2016 than holiday.
Click to expand...

And State of Decay 2 has been getting lots of talk too, so that one is off the table as well.
 
VectorVictor

VectorVictor

Member
I could see them holding Crackdown back and releasing it alongside Scorpio--we know Crackdown was going to work sans cloud computing, so those cloud-computing features may be Scorpio-only features. If you don't have Scorpio, then you get the 'offline' version of the game that was going to be available sans cloud computing originally.

As for the original point of this thread...I thought there was discussion of some of the old Rare IPs being shopped around (e.g. Battletoads) for XBox exclusives by Microsoft.

Frankly, there are a lot of IPs that Microsoft has in acquiring Rare that they've just been sitting on that they could do *something* with (e.g. Jet Force Gemini, Blast Corps, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark)--it would be wise for them to launch the Rare Retro compilation to remind folks of those games, shop the IPs around, and then announce new games for those IPs at this year's E3.
 
J

JlNX

Member
DriftingSpirit said:
I'm specifically talking about that studio and what I like/don't like. Sony has funded third party deals that have equally excited me but that has nothing to do with GG and how I feel about their output.
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I understand your point but with one fan gain with Horizon another is lost with the abandonment of killzone (I don't Cambridge is big enough to make Killzone.)
 
C

Chris1

Member
jayu26 said:
At one point people through it was 2016 title, then early 2017. As it is I would be extremely surprised if it comes before September .
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It was march 2016 (from ntkrnl), then delayed to holiday 2016 when it was officially revealed, then pushed back to 2017, people assumed early but now I guess it's holiday alongside Scorpio
 
S

sam777

Member
I am sure just last month one of the MS employees hinted that Crackdown would be ready for Scorpio, in some livestream, so can't see that going.
 
B

Blackleg-sanji1

Banned
jayu26 said:
At one point people through it was 2016 title, then early 2017. As it is I would be extremely surprised if it comes before September .
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It's supposed to be some open world rpg. Co op,towns,quests etc we've seen a small area of what I assume was a quest? And a boss fight. Nobody's touched it, it ran pretty bad,not a peep about it since.

I'm starting to convince myself it's Scalebound
JlNX said:
I understand your point but with one fan gain with Horizon another is lost with the abandonment of killzone (I don't Cambridge is big enough to make Killzone.)
Click to expand...
They made one for vita but who knows what they can do with console. But that's for another thread anyway
 
F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
JlNX said:
For people saying Coalition, it won't be your forgetting that they also released that gears remaster that did well which also came with micro-transactions.

For people saying Crackdown, it was only two weeks ago they were on a charity livestream at Ms headquarter with heads of publishing next to them talking about the game releasing in 2017 and features of the game it's development and they were joking around. Even saying it might come out earlier in 2017 than holiday.
Click to expand...

That's really nothing new.

Fable Legends was literally done.

Phantom Dust was talked about very positively too as if it was getting an imminent release.
 
J

JayWood2010

Member
Interested in the majority of their games, but I would like to see them add these

Banjo 3
Battletoads
Perfect Dark
Minekarts (Microsoft Mario Kart)
Ori and the Blind Forest 2
 
O

OldRoutes

Member
sense said:
I can't at the moment as I am not at desktop but Look at October 2016 npd thread and November 2015 npd thread where insiders who have leaked in the past have reported the exact launch numbers for both gears 4 and halo 5 alongside hardware numbers and other software numbers.
Click to expand...

That's not what I'm reading, though. I only see that Halo 5 has sold almost 1 million copies in October alone? It had sold 5 millions copies in 3 months.

So even with conservative numbers, it brings Halo 5 to 7-8 millions copies sold right now, 2 years after release on a brand new console with a smaller user base than the 360 at the time Halo 3 released.

I don't know, that seems pretty healthy to me!
 
W

Wedzi

Banned
JlNX said:
For people saying Crackdown, it was only two weeks ago they were on a charity livestream at Ms headquarter with heads of publishing next to them talking about the game releasing in 2017 and features of the game it's development and they were joking around. Even saying it might come out earlier in 2017 than holiday.
Click to expand...

Totally forgot about that stream. If I recall they also said something about the game being 4K on Scorpio. But it wouldn't be the first time a studio was surprised about a project falling through or even being shuttered. Lion head a good and relevant example.

Nightengale said:
Crackdown is being developed by 3 studios.

Cloudgine = technology/engine solutions provider.
Reagant Games = small team less than 20 people composed of ex-Crackdown devs. Presumably they are the core creatives/leads on the project.
Sumo Digital = large independent studio. Presumably they're basically ones building the game out of Reagant's direction.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. Seems like a large investment which could go either way in terms of being canceled or making it to the finish line.


I wonder if we are going to have another Recore on our hands with any of these titles. Something unpolished that felt rushed to the finishing line especially in the later half of the game.
 
S

SneakersSO

Member
wapplew said:
Shinobi said maybe. Maybe he just speculating, everything is fine.
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Haha, nah. Shinobi knows what he's talking about. Trust me.

Also, for the people speculating that Crackdown 3 is being held back for Scorpio - I think its less that and more its development is pretty troubled. Call it an informed hunch.
 
J

jayu26

Member
FinaruDensetsu said:
That's really nothing new.

Fable Legends was literally done.

Phantom Dust was talked about very positively too as if it was getting an imminent release.
Click to expand...
This. I am sticking with Crackdown. Also, Shinobi used the word "maybe" so all of this might be nothing.
 
E

EvB

Member
Nightengale said:
Crackdown is being developed by 3 studios.

Cloudgine = technology/engine solutions provider.

Reagant Games = small team less than 20 people composed of ex-Crackdown devs.
Presumably they are the core creatives/leads on the project.
Sumo Digital = large independent studio. Presumably they're basically ones building the game out of Reagant's direction.
Click to expand...


Cloudgine are the ones with the cloud engine tech

Reagent games were doing the main game that was online only (it's now reffered to the multiplayer component)

Sumo Digital were creating the mission mode that was announced in the post #NODRM xbox world
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
Bits N Pieces said:
Yeah but Killzone was never a game with the same stature as Gears or Halo, they could afford to drop it and try something else, if I look at the games that MS have produced this gen along with what they have for this year and beyond Im more than happy.

Would I prefer them to have 20 First Party studios, probably yeah but if they can continue with the diverse selection of games and genres moving forward is it really that big a deal?
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Well, you can look to Naughty Dog if you want a more critically and commercially successful example.

Sony let ND make three UC games in a row and finish the gen with a brand new IP in the same year the PS4 launched (this was amid huge internal turmoil as Sony loss tons of money year after year). Going from that, they let ND go back to UC with UC4 and release it to huge critical and commercial success this gen. They now let ND indefinitely shelve the franchise and move on to TLoU and supposedly a new IP.

Sony couldn't afford any of that last gen but they did it anyway. And now with things considerably turned around, they are still allowing their studios the opportunity to shift what they are working on.

It is fine if you're happy with MS output. That doesn't counter any of the valid criticism toward their studio management though.
 
J

JlNX

Member
FinaruDensetsu said:
That's really nothing new.

Fable Legends was literally done.

Phantom Dust was talked about very positively too as if it was getting an imminent release.
Click to expand...

Fable legends was cancelled for completely different reasons, the studio missing deadline after deadline for years, cost were rising ridiculously on a F2P and the studio hadn't made a good game in years.

Phantom Dust was also cancelled for a completely different reason, it was only in development for a very short time when that Cgi trailer was shown completely unknowingly to the devs. Phantom dusts issue was also production budget and the team pushing their chances on a triple AAA phantom dust. It was announced way!!! to early into development.
 
S

Sydle

Member
Crack down getting cancelled wouldn't surprise me at all. It's obvious it changed in scope at least a couple of times and it's probably way over budget at this point.
 
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