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Phil Spencer: "I know we have to take risks [after Scalebound cancellation],"

I'm always scared this means buying (timed) exclusivity from a third party developer, which just sucks for gamers in general. Especially those like me who really can only afford one console. :-/

Depends. There are games which - apparently- need a lot of funding support to be developed. Like, maybe Bayo 2 is a good example for that. And then you have the other scenario where money is paid so that a certain 3rd party game which is supposed to be million-seller anyhow isn't published on a competing platform for a while.

I think after last years events Phil is cured from trying the last one again.
 

Septic360

Banned
You go and take your risks Spencer. I will risk selling my Xbox1 on eBay.

raw
 
I'm always scared this means buying (timed) exclusivity from a third party developer, which just sucks for gamers in general. Especially those like me who really can only afford one console. :-/

I wouldn't be scared, the Xbox division doesn't have the money to go out and moneyhat any really big 3rd party games these days.
 
I believe this as much as I believe them when they say they're committed to PC gaming.

They'll pay lip service to it, they'll find a couple of indies (already in development) and partly fund/market them. They'll tout sea of thieves as being Rares biggest ever,riskiest project. They'll continue to buy third party (timed) exclusivity to fill gaps in their release schedule and genres.

Iv never really bought this whole Phil Spencer,savior of the Xbox division,narrative that people like to put out. Yes,he's more personable and not as blatantly out of touch as Matrick appeared to be, but he was still one of the guys who would have been heavily involved with the original concept and lineup for the Xbone. He was still the guy in charge of Microsoft first party when they were at the height of nothing but Forza fable halo and gears and Xboxs complete lack of investment in new IPs.

Sure,maybe it's taking longer for his running the division changes to really come into effect, but Xbox is once again seemingly following the pattern it did in the 360 days of starting off with some unique new potential franchises,but not growing then and instead relying on the same old franchises.
 
wants to take risks....cancels scalebound...and fable...and phantomdust
talks about internal studio's being critical...closes most of them

spencer is all talk and always has been imo. what he did for the xbox brand after mattrick, anyone could have done and been revered for it, just do the opposite and you've fixed most of the issues. he isn't special, or the savior of the brand. he's just a guy making OBVIOUS reactionary decisions based on consumer backlash, and making false promises about stuff to sell his plastic box.

if you want to take risks, stop talking about it and do it.
if you want to expand your internal studio's, do it, stop shuttering them just because the sales of one game were lower than expected.

Nailed it. Shut up, Phil. Shut your face.

Either deliver or shut up. Quit canceling games and pretending you're for the gamer.

These games are important to make your product more valuable and you, Phil, continue to throw them away for pennies.
 

wapplew

Member
From broader perspective, MS publishing is no different from western big publisher like EA or Ubi at risks taking and GaaS, online focus future.
Maybe that's where the industry going and everyone just adjust to survive.
 

Tecnniqe

Banned
The Xbox needs exclusives now but Phil isn't going to magically pull an AAA title out of his ass in 2017. This is while the PS4's lineup is ridiculously stacked.
Hah! Jokes on you, you've not seen what he got up his ass for 2017!

Better be something :D


Also, I'm sure Phil didn't wake up and go "Let's cancel this today and go home early" so I'm not sure all the attention towards him is reasonable.
 
Phil likes the deals he can get, not the ones he can't.

Seriously, parading that he doesn't believe in marketing or third party deals with ROTR, Dead Rising 4, Ashen, Cuphead to his belt is quite hypocritical.

.
 

Xando

Member
From broader perspective, MS publishing is no different from western big publisher like EA or Ubi at risks taking and GaaS, online focus future.
Maybe that's where the industry going and everyone just adjust to survive.

Doesn't seem to go too well if you look at AAA performance last year. Almost all of the big publisher games underperformed while SP focused games like Uncharted 4 or Witcher 3 sold pretty well.


These forced multiplayer features on big AAA games doesn't seem to work too well at the moment.
 

Beat me.

Business is business. We can't imagine how sh*t the game would have been but I assume that my life is better of without it. For those that assume it's a terrible decision then they probably think the game would have been wonderful. We just don't know.

The more risks you take, the more projects will be canned. It's not like big Pharma where we never get to see the canned projects, it's the magnifying glass that makes the projects' cancellation hurt that much more.

This industry is just odd.
 

jelly

Member
I know, right? And a single post from a well-known and credible Gaffer was enough to convince everyone, including myself, that they don't have any major other/unknown game in production right now.

Still, maybe they still have something up their sleeves. Maybe a $399 Scorpio, maybe a money-hatted 3rd party game, or maybe some early announcements for 2018+ games, or "just" Minecraft VR exclusive for Scorpio.

I am not saying I am optimistic in this regard, things are not looking good right now. All I am saying is there's life in the old dog yet.

Not a great selling point though, buy Scorpio, oh and buy this VR headset, have you seen this hololens thing. Halo 6 2018! /mic drop
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I believe this as much as I believe them when they say they're committed to PC gaming.

They'll pay lip service to it, they'll find a couple of indies (already in development) and partly fund/market them. They'll tout sea of thieves as being Rares biggest ever,riskiest project. They'll continue to buy third party (timed) exclusivity to fill gaps in their release schedule and genres.

Iv never really bought this whole Phil Spencer,savior of the Xbox division,narrative that people like to put out. Yes,he's more personable and not as blatantly out of touch as Matrick appeared to be, but he was still one of the guys who would have been heavily involved with the original concept and lineup for the Xbone. He was still the guy in charge of Microsoft first party when they were at the height of nothing but Forza fable halo and gears and Xboxs complete lack of investment in new IPs.

Sure,maybe it's taking longer for his running the division changes to really come into effect, but Xbox is once again seemingly following the pattern it did in the 360 days of starting off with some unique new potential franchises,but not growing then and instead relying on the same old franchises.

this is the sad truth i think. and besides the low reliability of the 360 was the main reason i switched to sony in the first place. i just got sick of playing iterations of the same 3 games and Xbox one seems to be heading in that same direction (if it hasn't reached that point already) i miss the original xbox days where it's exclusives, good or bad, at least offered some variation. hell, i'd take a new blinx the cat at this rate.
 

wapplew

Member
this is the sad truth i think. and besides the low reliability of the 360 was the main reason i switched to sony in the first place. i just got sick of playing iterations of the same 3 games and Xbox one seems to be heading in that same direction (if it hasn't reached that point already) i miss the original xbox days where it's exclusives, good or bad, at least offered some variation. hell, i'd take a new blinx the cat at this rate.

You know what, it was Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable in 360 era.
 

Alienfan

Member
Microsoft had a pretty good 2016 with Xbox backwards compatibility ramping up, Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 (possibly one of the best racing games of all time). They absolutely need to announce some new ips this E3, but some of the hyperbole in this thread is ridiculous.
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I don't know, Microsoft had a pretty good 2016 with Xbox backwards compatibility ramping up, Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 (possibly one of the best racing games of all time). They absolutely need to announce some new ips this E3, but some of the hyperbole in this thread is ridiculous.

you just listed 2 games and they both make up 2 of only 3 franchises MS seem to support these days. you could have at least mentioned re-core. lol
 
Phil Spencer don't like those deal, I think you are save.

Did he say that before buying Tomb Raider or after ?

I'll be shocked if they don't buy anything for 2017 considering how weak their lineup is and the only way to solve it in time left is buying exclusivity of nearly finished game.
 

Kill3r7

Member
Doesn't seem to go too well if you look at AAA performance last year. Almost all of the big publisher games underperformed while SP focused games like Uncharted 4 or Witcher 3 sold pretty well.


These forced multiplayer features on big AAA games doesn't seem to work too well at the moment.

Overwatch did pretty well for being MP only. Same for R6S.
 
Microsoft had a pretty good 2016 with Xbox backwards compatibility ramping up, Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 (possibly one of the best racing games of all time). They absolutely need to announce some new ips this E3, but some of the hyperbole in this thread is ridiculous.

I mean,isn't that just highlighting the problems that people have? Not to take away from the individual quality of the titles themselves or the incredibly consumer friendly BC....But in a thread where people are criticising MS for relying on the same old things over and over again, you've listed Forza,Gears and the ability to play old games....
 

Rymuth

Member
Phil likes the deals he can get, not the ones he can't.

Seriously, parading that he doesn't believe in marketing or third party deals with ROTR, Dead Rising 4, Ashen, Cuphead to his belt is quite hypocritical.
To be fair, if we count everything Phil has been hypocritical about, we'd be here forever.

Did he say that before buying Tomb Raider or after ?
After.

Kept complaining Sony was picking up everything. Suffered a lot of flak for it on twitter and said this

People getting worked up on this, Never said Xbox has never done this, not calling out others, just not practice I like, that's it
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
You know what, it was Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable in 360 era.

During a while they had some more, like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and Mass Effect (which, if I remember correctly it was "exclusive" for quite long). They also had exclusivity deals with Dead Rising and Alan Wake didn't they?

And they released Crackdown 1 and 2. And Fable 2 and 3. And Viva Piñata.

I'm not 100% sure about Mass Effect and Dead Rising (and if Alan Wake was suppose to come out for PC later when it released on X360) cause I didn't have a X360 back then so wasn't following the news as near as I do nowadays.

Edit: Searched some dates, and it seems they had Alan Wake exclusive to X360 for 2 years, Mass Effect for almost 5, and Dead Rising 1/2 seems o have been exclusive the entire past gen.
 

MisterR

Member
Microsoft had a pretty good 2016 with Xbox backwards compatibility ramping up, Gears of War 4 and Forza Horizon 3 (possibly one of the best racing games of all time). They absolutely need to announce some new ips this E3, but some of the hyperbole in this thread is ridiculous.

Some people are sick of Gears of War and Forza. It's not that hard to understand.
 

Kusagari

Member
I'm really surprised MS just seems fine to let Fable die and sit unused.

At it's height, Fable 2, the franchise almost sold a million in a single month.
 
I'm really surprised MS just seems fine to let Fable die and sit unused.

At it's height, Fable 2, the franchise almost sold a million in a single month.

Nothing is going to come from Microsoft unless it can feature virtual currencies and consumables. Not sure how to do that in games like Fable. Adding multiplayer angle didn't work for Legends, so looks like they're just going to punt on it.
 
Some people are sick of Gears of War and Forza. It's not that hard to understand.
Seems not enough that can affect MS's strategy.

I mean "Some people are sick of Gears of War and Forza"<-i hear this since like, at least 5 years ago? but 5 years later they didn't change much and still doing fine, that tells you something, if one day the complaining become something maybe 50% of what happened in 2013, then they will change.

But that said i think Scalebound, Phantom Dust etc actually was something they try to change, problem is they announced it too early, why announce that so early? because they need to do something in E3 2014, and why they need to do something in E3 2014? because think about what happened to Xbox brand and Microsoft in E3 2013...
 

KORNdoggy

Member
I'm really surprised MS just seems fine to let Fable die and sit unused.

At it's height, Fable 2, the franchise almost sold a million in a single month.

i think fable 3 was kind of it's downfall. while western RPG's were expanding in depth and scale and options. fable didn't. it's expanded in areas no-one really wanted. like holding hands and getting married. i think in the case of fable they couldn't match what the competition were doing, and if a sequel was to be made it would have been up against the likes of skyrim, and the witcher 3, so understandably it fell by the wayside. which is a shame tbh because it's always had a nice english charm about it.
 

Bluth54

Member
The Xbox needs exclusives now but Phil isn't going to magically pull an AAA title out of his ass in 2017. This is while the PS4's lineup is ridiculously stacked.

Obviously their big AAA exclusive will be Minecraft 2 an Xbox One/Windows 10 Store exclusive coming November 2017.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
i think fable 3 was kind of it's downfall. while western RPG's were expanding in depth and scale and options. fable didn't. it's expanded in areas no-one really wanted. like holding hands and getting married. i think in the case of fable they couldn't match what the competition were doing, and if a sequel was to be made it would have been up against the likes of skyrim, and the witcher 3, so understandably it fell by the wayside. which is a shame tbh because it's always had a nice english charm about it.

But it seems like they haven't even tried. Fable III may have failed, but then their next entries were Kinect games and they almost released Fable Legends (which no one asked). If they invested more money and supervised a Fable IV instead I believe they could have come with something pretty great! Such a shame it never happened.

I have some friends that are big Xbox fans since ever, and I think none of them were excited for Fable Legends...

It's like after Fable III MS threw the IP in the garbage bin and only used it's name to try some new experiments.
 

Fredrik

Member
* Make online multiplayer free.

* Shop around for more exclusives, not less.

* Team up with Team Ninja again for DOA7 and Ninja Gaiden 4 as Xbox exclusives.

* Buy some smaller great developer studios like the Ori, Cuphead or Inside devs.

* Increase Rare in size and make them do Nintendo-like single player platformers/adventures like they used too, and make sure that Sea of Thieves can be played in single player too.

* Release the PC versions through Steam with no Windows 10 requirement or better yet stop spreading out the exclusives to PC which will only make Xbox as a platform weaker.

* And make Minecraft 2.0 Xbox exclusive.

That's taking a risk that could help the Xbox brand. Canceling one of the few exclusives that looked interesting isn't about taking risks, it's the other way around. Check the forums, look at the world-wide sales, the Xbox brand gets weaker every day as it is. Maybe it's time to do something about that?

Exclusives, exclusives, exclusives. That's the way to do it. Scorpio won't save Xbox unless the groundwork for success is already in place, which it isn't today imo. Having the most powerful console later this year will be cool and all but you need exclusives too or it'll still just be the second best platform behind the PC.

Just my thoughts, nothing more, nothing less. I'm not PS4 fanboy, I'm just starting to lose hope on Xbox as a brand.
 
During a while they had some more, like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and Mass Effect (which, if I remember correctly it was "exclusive" for quite long). They also had exclusivity deals with Dead Rising and Alan Wake didn't they?

And they released Crackdown 1 and 2. And Fable 2 and 3. And Viva Piñata.

I'm not 100% sure about Mass Effect and Dead Rising (and if Alan Wake was suppose to come out for PC later when it released on X360) cause I didn't have a X360 back then so wasn't following the news as near as I do nowadays.

Edit: Searched some dates, and it seems they had Alan Wake exclusive to X360 for 2 years, Mass Effect for almost 5, and Dead Rising 1/2 seems o have been exclusive the entire past gen.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 were exclusive to the 360 at release, hell MS wanted to buy BioWare after ME1 but EA made the sweeter deal. It was a while before EA announced that ME2 was coming to PS3 and even then ME1 couldn't be guaranteed because MS helped publish that game. It wasn't until the ME3 PS3 Collection that ME1 became available to PS users.
 

Angel_DvA

Member
Seems not enough that can affect MS's strategy.

I mean "Some people are sick of Gears of War and Forza"<-i hear this since like, at least 5 years ago? but 5 years later they didn't change much and still doing fine, that tells you something, if one day the complaining become something maybe 50% of what happened in 2013, then they will change.

But that said i think Scalebound, Phantom Dust etc actually was something they try to change, problem is they announced it too early, why announce that so early? because they need to do something in E3 2014, and why they need to do something in E3 2014? because think about what happened to Xbox brand and Microsoft in E3 2013...

if you aren't a fan of Halo or Gears, they're no reason for any gamer to get the Xbox One over the PS4, just saying.

Even if you're a fan, Halo 4 and 5 are so bad that i'm sure halo 6 will sell lower than people think and as much as I like Gears series, Gears 4 don't sell close to what other Gears did, it's over for Microsoft if they don't move their asses.
 
The Xbox needs exclusives now but Phil isn't going to magically pull an AAA title out of his ass in 2017. This is while the PS4's lineup is ridiculously stacked.

If by exclusive means something not even on PC, i don't see they need it according to the recent console sales.
 

Kill3r7

Member
Nothing is going to come from Microsoft unless it can feature virtual currencies and consumables. Not sure how to do that in games like Fable. Adding multiplayer angle didn't work for Legends, so looks like they're just going to punt on it.

Sell shit for your house/castle and clothing/gear?
 
if you aren't a fan of Halo or Gears, they're no reason for any gamer to get the Xbox One over the PS4, just saying.

Even if you're a fan, Halo 4 and 5 are so bad that i'm sure halo 6 will sell lower than people think and as much as I like Gears series, Gears 4 don't sell close to what other Gears did, it's over for Microsoft if they don't move their asses.

Most people buying console had nothing to do with fan of which exclusive game(s).
And what "it's over for Microsoft", the hell?
 
I have to say that if it wasn't for that Best Buy TV+XBONE deal then I would have never gotten an Xbone. PS4 is more than enough especially when I already have a high-powered PC.
 

Tecnniqe

Banned
this 10 times, dude have done nothing in 3 years but people still believe in him, fans are strange dude.
If anything I'm surprised he managed to do what he's done considering what I've heard from people with relations to MS game studios.

There are a lot of internal forces at play, in all directions. It's not like he just claps and it's law. Shit gonna take a lot of time.
 
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