Yeah, GameFreak develops the Pokémon games, and they make other stuff in between those fairly frequently...
But I still get your point
I said The Pokémon Company though, not GameFreak, so I'm not sure why you brought them up to begin with.
That is nice from MS' POV but it is obvious why that isn't appealing to some people like us. Indefinitely pumping out Halo and Gears may be good for their business but it isn't enticing me to jump into their ecosystem.
Yeah, there is obviously risk involved in making new IP but that is what I want from first party studios. That is the point in joining a big pub. You'll obviously have your key franchises that stand the test of time but it should also encourage creative and risky ideas.
You realize that even Nintendo effectively does the same thing with Zelda (and to an extent, Mario), right? They just don't call the massive Zelda team "Navi Industries" or anything. There's nothing wrong with a single IP factory and it's not like Microsoft can't have other, more open teams because of it. It's more just that they don't have a particular large amount of teams than anything, so they just have the couple factories, largely because MS heavily leverages external studios for other projects (ReCore, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, etc). But Black Tusk could have been working on new IPs, they just elected to become The Coalition for the job security. And Rare is apparently transitioning to exclusively pumping out new IPs, starting with Sea of Thieves.
I know 343 won't do non Halo stuff but with 450 developers they should be doing more than just 1 mainline Halo every 3 years. I'm not saying they should go and make a new IP because that's not happening, but why not something else in the Halo franchise? Halo Kart? Halo MMO-lite like destiny?
1 mainline Halo game every 3 years from a dev team of 450 is a joke. Sledgehammer has 225 and they put out a CoD every 3 years, and that'll be including non devs too.
Or take like 150 of them, build a new studio for them and have them put out a new IP. That gives MS another studio and another new IP to add to their portfolio. Hell it wouldn't even cost that much more cause they're already paying their salary anyway.
This has been addressed several times, but even if you assume the 450 number is development staff and doesn't include folks in licensing/merchandising/branding and non-game media, not all of them are working solely on mainline Halo games. They're also assisting in/overseeing projects like the Spartan games and their many ports, Halo Wars 2, MCC/H2A, Halo Wars: DE, Forge, and whatever other side games and remakes/remasters they have planned for the future. So they are working on other games, just not the specific ones you suggested. Hell, we even know there was a Halo Megabloks game being worked on just a few years back.
That's sad though. Developers should be able to branch out creatively instead of having 450 devs working endlessly on cranking out sequels with ever diminishing returns for their effort.
It's on Microsoft to find a solution to this issue or risk 343 going bankrupt creatively (which in my opinion is already happening). And honestly, letting Halo breathe for two-three years while the devs get to work on something new and exciting will do the franchise good.
That's like saying it's sad that the cooks at "Bill's Burgers Only" only make burgers and should be allowed more freedom to make other food. You don't get a job at Bill's to begin with if your goal is to make anything other than burgers. You get a job at 343i to work on Halo, and if that's not what you want then you work elsewhere. That said, the "freedom" of new IPs isn't everything. Most developers would kill to have the job security at 1st party major IP factory provides.
The Pokémon Company does not develop games though, they're purely marketing and licensing.
They're also publishing, but yes, I'm aware it's not a perfect comparison, though it is still a functional one. Both were founded with the express purpose of managing a single IP, and 343i is also a publishing, marketing, merchandising, licensing, etc. arm.