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[JesseEwiak]

But what Sony's doing is where the money is right now. And that includes first party SP exclusives.

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

 

[gamz]

Yeah but 3rd party publishers are making those games as services. No need for 1st party studios to do that. You are competing with Destiny, COD et al.

Better to create fresh new IP like horizon to give you name some brand recognition.

Halo, Gears and Forza are on the decline. Time to create the next big Microsoft franchise.

Creating a destiny clone is not it

Forza is on a decline? Really? Rethink that a bit.

 

[JesseEwiak]

Yeah but 3rd party publishers are making those games as services. No need for 1st party studios to do that. You are competing with Destiny, COD et al.

Better to create fresh new IP like horizon to give you name some brand recognition.

Halo, Gears and Forza are on the decline. Time to create the next big Microsoft franchise.

Creating a destiny clone is not it

That's what MS is likely doing, instead of putting out 8 different first party titles that all do OK, but have no true long term tail when it comes to revenue.

 

[Uno Venova]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

How much money has Sony's first party titles earned?

 

[Livedili]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Surely Phantom Dust will make them money. Or Scalebound /s

Sorry, this sounds like the ass-hattery that Spencer is spewing all the time and yet, there's nothing coming. Every. Single. Year. Every E3 it's "the best games are on xbox" and when you take a loot at the end of the year, all their exclusive games - but Forza - plain suck.

Care to elaborate how they're going to pull a magic trick this time? Take a hint: They can't because they don't have the studios for this. And the most obvious one: Their playerbase is not even half as big as Sony's. Plus: Xbox-players want generic shooters like Halo.

 

[tapedeck]

Dear Phil:

Please greenlight development on Killer Instinct 4 for either PC/Scorpio or Xbox Two (I can wait) and give it a massive AAA budget and have Rare collab with Iron Galaxy.

Thanks a bunch.

 

[Tutomos]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

If that's true then they are making them "titles" for the wrong platform. So far I've only seen Minecraft fits the description and that game is on every device you can think of.

Also when you have billions in the bank, sometimes it's better that it stays in the bank where it'll net you more money then chasing some illusive long tail game on a platform that has limited customer base.

 

[Fisty]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

Funny, that's all MS seems to be releasing lol

 

[Miniature Kaiju]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

That won't really happen unless they're willing to go wide multiplat with these titles.

 

[banktree]

I don't think I'll ever forget Zelda or Horizon. Those are all-time games.

"Service games" last only as long as it takes for them to get replaced by the next big thing.

 

[Katana_Strikes]

It's alright saying you'll invest more (we've heard that before) but what happens if those games fail? They'll just go back to Halo/Forza/Gears on repeat (again, seen it all before). They have to be serious and really build first party studios that can put out variety and stick with it even if they don't sell Halo numbers. It's going to take a good generation to build these up and TBH it all seems too little, too late. So far, going into the next generation, MS have no new worthwhile IPs to expand the userbase beyond what it has now. While Sony are building up new and exciting IPs, some of which are very big games turning into blockbuster franchises, that lots gamers are excited to play the next in the series.

MS should have started investing at the end of last gen, and building upon them this gen. But we are most of the way through this gen, certainly by the time any potential new IP can be launched, with so far just talk and no action. All eyes are on E3 for them to pull something interesting out of the bag. I'm not holding my breath though.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Maybe among the dozen or so Gaf members that truly care about that but it was never the determining factor. The PS4 launched $100 cheaper and had more variety of games in the long run. If you like any genre besides shooters and racing games then PS4 was the system to get and that reputation sticked. Sony marketed the PS4 as the system for gamers by gamers and Microsoft did not. Guess which system more gamers got?

What I am talking about goes beyond GAF, PlayStation even had TV adverts here in the U.K declaring "the most powerful console".

Then we have the media, who week in week out made resolution, power headline news for a long time. I didn't just imagine all this and it certainly did not just come down to a dozen or so of GAF members.

I remember being disconcerted with it all as it seemed the most important factor, the games, had been put to one side. To say power didn't play any factor at all I just cannot agree with.

Agree on MS, if you look at my post history I have been very critical of them, im certainly not in the love 1000% everything Phil Spencer says and does. In fact I am not that impressed at all.

 

[bede-x]

Seems more like he has no confidence in his teams creating games like Zelda or Horizon

Do they have a team to take on a project like that anymore? At this point their main developers are factories producing the same product in all perpetuity, which is basically what the service approach to games require.

Could we imagine 343 being allowed to make a non-Halo game in the same way Naughty Dogs was allowed to leave Uncharted and do The Last of Us? Not likely when you need to keep the service going.

 

[The Flash]

I certainly hope so

 

[Neuromancer]

I'm going to need to see some significant development in MS's first party output before I can seriously consider a Scorpio (well, that, and their VR plan.) This E3 needs to be a games blowout for them.

I honestly do like Phil but he has mastered the art of telling everyone what they want to hear. Show, don't tell, Phil.

 

[Quasar]

As somebody who wants to to see XBox be great again, that single-player game quote is troubling to me. My favorite games of the last few years are Horizon and Zelda. Destiny is great fun, don't get me wrong, but nothing it came close to matching the thrills of Zelda this spring.

Me too. But I'm someone whose not into multiplayer centric games as a service games. So that kind of quote makes it hard to consider the platform. Especially given I'm unwilling to own multiple platforms at this point. So buying say a Scorpio would mean me retiring my PS4. Means I'm better off just not doing it and sticking with PS4 and PC ( as I already have that for strategy games and RPGs).

 

[Josh5890]

I'm going to need to see some significant development in MS's first party output before I can seriously consider a Scorpio (well, that, and their VR plan.) This E3 needs to be a games blowout for them.

I honestly do like Phil but he has mastered the art of telling everyone what they want to hear. Show, don't tell, Phil.

Congrats. You have your own Reggie Microsoft

 

[LukasTaves]

Top notch gameplay? Wow.

Yeah, much better than other action story driven focused games, specially the ones you mentioned, but even when compared to the best shooters the game can more than stand on its own.

 

[Kaako]

3rd party will be there.

In regards to first party software released within these next 2 years alone, the importance of betting heavy and supporting your internal creative talent is going to become even more obvious. The fruits of their labor is what sets you apart from your competitors. What keeps the general public interested in your platform/console/brand.

 

[Metroidvania]

”The audience for those big story-driven games... I won't say it isn't as large, but they're not as consistent. You'll have things like Zelda or Horizon Zero Dawn that'll come out, and they'll do really well, but they don't have the same impact that they used to have, because the big service-based games are capturing such a large amount of the audience. Sony's first-party studios do a lot of these games, and they're good at them, but outside of that, it's difficult – they're become more rare; it's a difficult business decision for those teams, you're fighting into more headwind."

Welp, there goes any interest in a Scorpio. Peace out, Microsoft.

Why buy a scorpio (outside of not wanting to go PC at all) when they're not even gonna put the effort in anymore outside of yearly retreads of shooters and the like?

Also....I'm relatively confident in saying Zelda and Horizon sold pretty damn well.

not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

3rd party is debatable, sure, but what 1st party game has MS released recently that's not done exactly this?

Gears (and its microtransaction issues) aren't exactly lighting up the charts, DR4 isn't doing gangbusters, and while Forza is (relatively) steady, you've got stuff like Recore.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

First I would thing that in terms of 1st party Sony is making more money this generation then MS.

There's so few multiplayer only game that'll make you money hand over fist for a decade that I don't think it's viable to pursuit that and only that. In the console space Rocket League and Overwatch might be able to do that but that's pretty much it. Destiny is getting a sequel, Siege might be but I don't think that it's making as much money as something like Uncharted 4 or even Horizon. GTAV is of course the outlier.

 

[Vegetable Lasagna]

But what Sony's doing is where the money is right now. And that includes first party SP exclusives.

Not going to argue that. It's definitely included in their strategy right now. But looking at software sales... That's not the software causing the PS4 to consistently fly off shelves month after month either.

 

[Papacheeks]

First I would thing that in terms of 1st party Sony is making more money this generation then MS.

There's so few multiplayer only game that'll make you money hand over fist for a decade that I don't think it's viable to pursuit that and only that. In the console space Rocket League and Overwatch might be able to do that but that's pretty much it. Destiny is getting a sequel, Siege might be but I don't think that it's making as much money as something like Uncharted 4 or even Horizon. GTAV is of course the outlier.

A lot more.

And Playstation as a division is making a lot more than xbox net profit wise.

Not going to argue that. It's definitely included in their strategy right now. But looking at software sales... That's not the software causing the PS4 to consistently fly off shelves month after month either.

Right and it never has been. But think of it as a second tier to how consoles get their numbers and fly off shelves into peoples homes. Third party get's you in, exciting first party and exclusive second/third party makes you stay.

And it's worked for them for a long time.

 

[Eria]

Surely Phantom Dust will make them money. Or Scalebound /s

Sorry, this sounds like the ass-hattery that Spencer is spewing all the time and yet, there's nothing coming. Every. Single. Year. Every E3 it's "the best games are on xbox" and when you take a loot at the end of the year, all their exclusive games - but Forza - plain suck.

Care to elaborate how they're going to pull a magic trick this time? Take a hint: They can't because they don't have the studios for this. And the most obvious one: Their playerbase is not even half as big as Sony's. Plus: Xbox-players want generic shooters like Halo.

.

 

[Uno Venova]

Not going to argue that. It's definitely included in their strategy right now. But looking at software sales... That's not the software causing the PS4 to consistently fly off shelves month after month either.

But I mean..these games are selling millions of copies, it's not fair to say these aren't a significant factor either.

 

[lukeskymac]

Yeah, much better than other action story driven focused games, specially the ones you mentioned, but even when compared to the best shooters the game can more than stand on its own.

Ahahahaha

I don't think even Remedy would agree with you.

 

[Papacheeks]

Yeah, much better than other action story driven focused games, specially the ones you mentioned, but even when compared to the best shooters the game can more than stand on its own.

Wow.

 

[R_thanatos]

Doesn't matter. The reality is very few developers are doing this anymore. Naughty Dog has been around forever specializing in SP experiences and has a huge fan base that will buy whatever they do. If Sony didn't have Naughty Dog things would be drastically different.

All I'm reading from you is "X game series by X developer that has been around for 20+ years is doing well, so why not everyone else? They just must not have the skill to do it!" Laughable at best. Just be happy Horizon is doing well, because there won't be a ton of others like it. If you want someone to blame you can start with consumers. It's not MS.

I'm very confused by this comment.

1) Naughty dog as a team produces different games.. naughty dog let go of jack and daxter to make uncharted and are now on last of us. You can be sure that when they'll be tired of that , they'll do something else.

2) So now horizon is an exception ? Like last of us was an exception since it was naughty dog ? So i guess every title that work will be an exception and every titles that doesn't will confort your idea ?

3) The reality is that the market for single player games is stable , healthy and still strong. Few develloppers ? Sony does it in first party , NIntendo does it in first party and third parties are still doing those and in most cases it works. I just have to look at what released in 2016 & 2017 and goddamn , the list of sucesses and quality titles is significant. The ratio of single players games is still there.

 

[peppers]

Even if Xbox had five unannounced AAA games ready for 2017/18, they need to show confidence in them and properly market them. If Crackdown and State of Decay don't each get a lengthy live gameplay demo at E3 and solid release dates then they're basically fucked.

 

[DriftingSpirit]

Microsoft is aiming for titles that make them more money than every 1st party Sony will put out this year.

Which is something you can do when you have billions in the bank. You can chase after the thing that will make you money for a decade, not the thing that'll be hot for three months and then be forgotten.

I don't even know what to say in response to this.

 

[Agnostic Priest]

I'm going to say that MS is going to slam dunk this E3 with a bunch of new games releasing in 1-3 years.

I know they've been burned before by doing this, but I think they need to be extremely aggressive. They need to release Scorpio with a low price point ($349-$399), and they need to announce a bunch of new games & Studios. I don't care if 100% of their upcoming games are GaaS, just make them amazing to play. I put 24 days played into the Division with my friends and I loved it.

I know the above is unlikely, but I feel MS needs to go all out if they want to stay in the console business.

 

[Fisty]

But I mean..these games are selling millions of copies, it's not fair to say these aren't a significant factor either.

Uncharted 4 sold (way?) more than Halo 5 and Horizon is doing huge numbers for a new IP, i'd say it is provably a significant factor

 

[LukasTaves]

Ahahahaha

I don't think even Remedy would agree with you.

Wow.

Then which current games have better shooting mechanics?

 

[Papo Swing]

Man I loved Quantum Break, but that game left me wanting more in every department in a not so good way.

- too little gameplay

- cool story wrong focus

- cool thing with the episode inside the thing, wrong focus

In the end I enjoyed my time with it, but it left me wanting so much more it was disappointing with how cool the ideas behind it were.

We've already had one of the finest first half of the years for gaming. 2017 will go down as one of the better ones and MS has played not part in it up until now. Realistically I doubt they can announce or release anything that is really amazing before Fall 2018. Hopefully Crackdown or Sea of Thieves prove me wrong, but me and many other people doubt it. Crackdowns have always been very fun, but very disappointing in execution and Sea of Thieves doesn't give me confidence yet.

I really hope E3 changes it though, but I just can't see it.

 

[peppers]

Wow.

He's not wrong though, QB plays really good when chaining the time powers and keeping the use of soft covers to its minimum. I'll take QB's gunplay over something like RotTR any day, although it's true that most of the encounters are somewhat arena-based and the set pieces don't include firefights.

 

[Tutomos]

Then which current games have better shooting mechanics?

If you are just talking about shooting mechanics, I think a lot of people will tell you it's The Order 1886.

 

[leeh]

A lot of content usually expected in a Halo game was missing at launch and was later free DLC. They worked that angle well. Not saying work wasn't involved but expectations and praise for that are suspect. Adding REQs and shit tier armour etc. yeah that's not a positive in my book. I think they've done some good by supporting it but warzone is a poor mode and maps are weak among other things. If Halo 6 day one is packed full and they support it well with good content, I'll be pleased.

A lot of content? What, BTB?

 

[Shaanyboi]

You'll have things like Zelda or Horizon Zero Dawn that'll come out, and they'll do really well, but they don't have the same impact that they used to have

Nope nope nope.

I enjoy Overwatch a lot and Hitman was fantastic. But this idea that an isolated single-player experience doesn't have the value anymore is a deeply misguided one. There are service-based games that do incredibly well. Do you know what I don't want to play a lot of? Service-based games. I'll play 2-3 a year (and that doesn't even mean they're new or came out that year), but I play a fuck ton more single player games.

 

[The Cartographer]

Were some people here actually expecting something different from Microsoft?

 

[Salty Hippo]

Phil went on Twitter to do a little bit of damage control as usual. His stance is that he likes playing single-player games. In absolutely no way does he tackle the subject of Microsoft themselves making single-player games. But makes sure that people know he likes playing them.

Cool. I'm sure the concern will go away now.

 

[JaggedSac]

Phil went on Twitter to do a little bit of damage control as usual. His stance is that he likes playing single-player games. In absolutely no way does he tackle the subject of Microsoft themselves making single-player games. But makes sure that people know he likes playing them.

Cool. I'm sure the concern will go away now.

That damn Phil Spencer.

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

My GOTY last year was Hitman... A single player service based game. I'd like to see more developers try out this approach. An Alan Wake sequel would have been perfect taking this model.

 

[LastGamer84]

A lot of content? What, BTB?

BTB, Forge, Firefight, Infection, Campaign Scoring, Theater, etc.

But hey, we got those sweet REQ points...right?

Not surprised at MS stance, it's going to come back and bite them in the ass, but I'm not surprised. They think they learned a lesson from the early part of this generation where their SP offerings didn't do so hot so they're doubling down on this GaaS idea because if they can't make good SP, what's the point? Not realizing that Sony are winning because of the sheer variety of games available on their platform, not just single player.

 

[Boke1879]

I'm just going to say this.

It's not even people in this thread, but I'm seeing it permeate to the consumer base at large. People are tired of Phil simply "talking" about it.

It's time for him and MS to actually be about it.

From the updates and services. MS has been top notch. No debates there. But from the games output. The perception from the general public is starting to be about them being way behind PS and now Nintendo.

From a first party standpoint. Nintendo is strong this year. They will ensure the first year of their console is strong based on the games coming out. And we don't even need to talk about the exclusive games that have come out or will be coming out for Playstation. Nintendo and Sony have made themselves the conversation.

MS needs to be about games. They cancelled Scalebound and that just led to people reinforcing their believe that MS isn't about investing in new IP but would rather double down on their key franchises and take the occasional game on "games as a service" model.

Straight up. No one outside of this forum or any enthusiast site is talking about Scorpio. On twitter I follow some people that prefer Xbox and their platform of choice. None of them are talking about Scorpio of if they'll buy one.

They talked about it when info was revealed, and will no doubt will talk about it when E3 rolls around. But it's not something they are gung ho about at all.

MS needs to invest in games and right now it's hard to see them even doing that. Even if they are we won't see much about it this year at all. It's too little too late.

 

[atr0cious]

Phil went on Twitter to do a little bit of damage control as usual. His stance is that he likes playing single-player games. In absolutely no way does he tackle the subject of Microsoft themselves making single-player games. But makes sure that people know he likes playing them.

Cool. I'm sure the concern will go away now.

This popped into my head reading this

 

[Salty Hippo]

My GOTY last year was Hitman... A single player service based game. I'd like to see more developers try out this approach. An Alan Wake sequel would have been perfect taking this model.

Agreed, Hitman is great and I'd love to see more of that. The issue is that the "most played" (Spencer's words) GaaS are mostly competitive PvP games. People are fooling themselves if they think Microsoft's focus will be on single-player service games like Hitman. It's a great game and it did well, but it's not even close to the top of any "most played" charts.

 

[SteamyPunk]

My GOTY last year was Hitman... A single player service based game. I'd like to see more developers try out this approach. An Alan Wake sequel would have been perfect taking this model.

Does this count as a "service game"? I thought it was episodic.

 

[BigEmil]

If it ain't available on PC you got exclusives MS

 

[Pez]

Sure, Phil.

 

[VanCityGamer]

Their secret is that they own Naughty Dog. I'm sure Horizon benefited highly from having them under the same company roof. If that purchase never happened Sony's 1st party efforts would be drastically different today.

You have been spewing all kinds of ridiculous bullshit on this page.

Yeah, Sony would have no single player successes without Naughty Dog. Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Infamous, Ratchet & Clank, Heavy Rain/Beyond/Detroit, Bloodborne, etc. would all fail. Thank-you Naughty Dog for convincing PlayStation gamers to buy completely different single player games.

Back to reality: Sony has demonstrated that single player games absolutely can be successful.