Okami Haundo
Member
In a realistic world where Xbox division no longer has carte blanche with the cheque book:
- Create 2 smaller studios from staff poached from Rare, 343, Coalition and Turn 10. These a HUGE fucking studios. Surely they can manage their resources well enough to create 2 smaller studios from those 4 which means they';re not spending any extra money but have created 2 new studios out of it that can create anything they want or at least be used to revive EXISITNG IPs.
which brings me to...
- Revive some existing old IPs. They're already there and not costing you anything. No one has to come up with a new idea because the IP already exists. If they're not going to create the new studios as I suggested above, there's PLENTY of third party developers and indie devs who need work. Killer Instinct is a great example of how well this can work out.
Banjo
Crimson Skies
Jet Force Gemini
Project Gotham
Rallisport
Blinx
Quantum Break
ReCore
Kameo
Perfect Dark
Come on, with the right 3rd party dev there are some hits in here.
- Moneyhat just 1 or 2 third party exclusives via dormant/dead IPs with third parties. Similar to the point above but using someone else's IP instead of their own. Would cost a LITTLE more than the above but with the right choices not too much more.
Capcom and Sega alone are sitting on a fucking TREASURE TROVE of dormant or dead IPs Microsoft could approach them to fund a sequel or reboot to that wouldn't cost much:
PowerStone
Streets of Rage
Shinobi
Dino Crisis (this was rumoured ot have happened and Capcom said no)
Altered Beast
Maximo
Virtua Fighter
The list could go on forever. Ahem, Splinter Cell.
I think the above 3 options are realistic and reasonable from a budget perspective. Doesn't have to be ALL 3 options, but at least 1 or a combination of 2 of the 3.
Yep! This is honestly exactly what I came here to say and you beat me to it. I like Ryan's ideas as well, but I'm just not sure that his list appeals to "new" customers as much as old Xbox fans that might have switched. Microsoft needs to show that they're willing to invest in (and actually release) new games for the platform.
Their other problem right now is the lack of a roadmap for future exclusives. With delays (Crackdown 3) and cancellations (Scalebound), they're in a tough spot on that front. Not talking about new titles super early makes it look like nothing is coming. On the flip side, talking about games super early also won't mean much when they don't have a history of following through on releasing titles at the moment.
As quickly as possible, Microsoft needs to start getting new titles announced and out the door. This fall will hurt for them, but I think it'll get better if we have Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves actually releasing in Spring. If E3 2018 comes and goes without them announcing a decent slate of unknown games for that fall/Spring 2019, I really don't know what their plans are.