dancrane212
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Interview over at GameInformer with Shannon Loftis, the general manager of Microsoft's Global Games Publishing. Article covers some things we've seen discussed already but there are a couple less worn topics included.
Scalebound
Minecraft Exclusivity
On the long lasting success of MS' recent IP
More at the article.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...clusivity-and-scalebound.aspx?PostPageIndex=1
Scalebound
-How close to being completed was Scalebound when the decision to cancel it was made?
-We're not really talking about the state of the game. It was an incredibly difficult decision to make to discontinue it. Platinum is an amazing, incredibly talented developer.
When we make game decisions, we ask ourselves: Is this the right game? Is it the right experience? Is it the right time? And unless we can answer yes to all three, we won't continue on with a development cycle.
And you know, Platinum is obviously doing great. They came out with Nier: Automata, and I thought that was an incredible game, and I'm super excited to see what they do next.
Minecraft Exclusivity
-This is probably a horribly cynical question, but why don't you make Minecraft an Xbox exclusive?
-Because Minecraft players don't want that. Minecraft is a game that unites communities in a way that I think is very unique in the games industry, so we're embracing it.
We just announced Rise of Nations, which is a game we released six years ago – it's been on Steam for the last several years, and we just announced that we're bringing it to Windows 10 and we're actually supporting cross- network play between Steam and Xbox Live. So we're experimenting with really bringing gamers into the family from everywhere.
On the long lasting success of MS' recent IP
-We got Halo on the original Xbox and Gears of War with the Xbox 360 – do you think that you've added an iconic IP of that caliber in the Xbox One generation?
-Wow, that's a really interesting question. IPs in my observation seem to be developing a little bit differently this generation than they did in the previous generations.
[...]
And we have a few IPs that my team brought to the table over the last [generation] – I think Quantum Break is a really good example of a world and a phenomenon where there's still a lot of story that we can tell.
Announcing ReCore: Definitive Edition was a little bit of a signal to people that got into the world of Far Eden and fell in love with these characters that we believe that that's an IP with a lot of legs.
I think that the key to developing these IPs into something really special and something really monumental is sticking with them.
More at the article.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...clusivity-and-scalebound.aspx?PostPageIndex=1