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[Zedark]

This is the exact opposite of what MS should be doing right now: fostering new IP and building up new genres in their exclusive catalog. I bet Kamiya is PISSED.

He is on sick leave due to mental health issues, but probably quite pissed as well.

 

[BadWolf]

Platinum owns Vanquish, actually.

Don't Sega own it along with Bayo?

 

[Audioboxer]

Capcom isn't declining. They're doing okay, and will continue do so as long as they don't try any more major risks like they did back in 2012-13.

They're stagnating. Giving up on the Dragons Dogma IP is a joke. Fair enough the first was a bit of a cult classic, but in a world where Souls sells gangbusters Dragons Dogma 2 can have a nice piece of pie. That MMO was Japan only and Deep Down was just... why? Why start making something so similar to Dragons Dogma under a new name? Scrap that piece of shit that's constantly "still in development guys, honest" and do Dragons Dogma 2, multiplatform.

 

[IDontBeatGames]

that's not an opinion it's just shitposting.

also the dev posted in this thread.

Mind linking me?

 

[Wedzi]

It's a big blow to the Xbox line up. Honestly there's a serious lack of single player story driven games. Well, exclusive ones at least. Everything is literally MP focused. Forza 7, State of Decay, Sea of Thieves, Crackdown...(and I've heard Crackdown isn't going too hot either, though nothing as bad as this).

Unless they have a bunch of first party studios secretly tucked away somewhere (which they don't that I know of), I genuinely struggle to think of what surprises they could have at E3 *as of right now*. Halo 6 is to be expected, and I don't see publishers playing ball much anymore with 3rd party exclusives unless Microsoft gives the Xbox division a huge budget to throw cash around, which I highly doubt. Their major first party IP are on a decline with Halo doing less than before and Gears 4 not selling that well at all relatively speaking (not good enough to sustain a huge studio with that many workers and budget).

What's happening now is the exact opposite of what Xbox fans seemed to want out of a Phil spencer leadership.

I remember when he became head of Xbox and everyone was saying how there'll be tons of new games, but they're still coasting on announcements from 2013-2014 and in that time, games have been cancelled, multiple studios closed including Lionhead...

As a big Xbox fan since day one, I'm not very hopeful for the future. Scorpio won't do anything without software to push it heavily.

Spot on. But remeber there's only so much Phil can do. How is Xbox treated in the overall Microsoft plan these days? What kind of budget is allocated towards the gaming side and how much is for actual games and not windows store intergration? It just feels like there's very little investment from that side. Most of the games on the horizon have been announced for a long time.

Edit: I see my question has already been answered

 

[borges]

Sigh. So what you have now for a "year of scorpio"? 4 heavily MP/coop oriented games with possibly new Halo coming out [which will most likely again compromise it's campaign experience by shoving aggressive coop elements in it]? I'm not impressed.

Farewell Scalebound headphones dude, we hardly knew ya. Hopefully Platinum Games will survive this.

Forza 7 and potentially Minecraft 2.

 

[Menitta]

Platinum owns Vanquish, actually.

I thought that was Sega.

 

[FinaruDensetsu]

As someone who largely plays single player, narrative driven games, this sounds rather horrible. RIP Alan Wake 2

It's ok you're still going to get those on PC, PS4 and Switch. Just MS won't focus on that stuff anymore, which is totally fine. We need games of all kinds.

 

[SomedayTheFire]

To further expand on this, we own Cuphead. In essence, the game "can't" be cancelled unless we choose to. And we're not cancelling it.

On topic, I really wanted to play Scalebound. I am sad.

Oh wow I didn't realise you guys kept the IP. That's cool. Game looks fantastic but not really my cup of tea (heh). Hopefully I enjoy it!

 

[Willy Wanka]

That's a shame. Admittedly it looked a bit rough on the last showing but it was well over a year away so I was still excited about it.

 

[D4Danger]

As someone who largely plays single player, narrative driven games, this sounds rather horrible. RIP Alan Wake 2

It doesn't have to mean the end of those games. Hitman is a perfect example of a game that shouldn't work in this era but does.

 

[BigPapi]

Unfortunate since this was one of the games I was looking forward to. I don't understand people buying consoles for a certain game and said game doesn't even have a release date. That is a bad a move as preordering imo.

 

[Guess Who]

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
My take on all this, and I've been seeing this for a while, is that Microsoft is transitioning all their games to the 'live service' model.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Basically Microsoft want to have their games emulate what Minecraft has been able to do.
Long lifecycle, large user base, Increased spend.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Microsoft's future direction is about being able to offer the Xbox games and live services on multiple devices that run Windows 10.

This is only going to become more and more common, I fear. Valve's already made this move, too.

 

[Ninjimbo]

Shitty news for PG and MS. I guess the game was in way over their heads.

Is the Kamiya taking time off thing confirmed?

 

[SneakersSO]

I wonder if MS would consider buying a studio like Riot.

I mean assuming Tencent would even consider selling.

That is literally an impossible acquisition. Tencent would never sell. MS would have to buy Tencent, and after their recent acquisition of Supercell, this acquisition would be higher in price than even Mojang.

Not like it would matter - Even if MS did acquire Riot, like Mojang, there is no way you can leverage that to push their platform (which would be W10 at that price range, not Xbox) at the expense of platforms LoL is already flourishing on. Its like Mojang in that the strength of the deal is largely due to them serving a plethora of platforms rather than 1.

Still, being able to do LoL streaming exclusively on Beam would really help prop up that streaming service in a way that MS will never be able to do on its own.

 

[Sijil]

Man, all that work only to have it cancelled.... Must feel like a kick to the gut to all the people that worked so hard on it. Should've been cancelled at alpha stages not this late.

 

[bitbydeath]

Exactly what I and some devs I spoken to feel.

Xbox already uses Win10 though, or this meant to be the full product?

 

[23qwerty]

I wonder if MS would consider buying a studio like Riot.

I mean assuming Tencent would even consider selling.

But for what purpose?

 

[meppi]

Ugh platinum us so overrated anyways... What did you guys expect? As a gamer who.. loves games, especially fond of many Japanese games... I own zero platinum...

They are a one or two hit wonder and otherwise release trash.

Lol okay...

 

[rocketskates]

that's not an opinion it's just shitposting.

also the dev posted in this thread.

It's not shitposting unless they specifically said I HOPE the game gets cancelled. It's an honest, and very possible situation, evidenced as the rest of my post: the Scalebound situation has shown anything can happen. So up until Cuphead actually comes out, some people may legitimately think the worst.

 

[Hoo-doo]

Its the direction the majority of the industry is headed in.

Really Sony 1st party should be commended in terms of still producing major, expensive, single player focused narrative games. They are one of the few players in town still doing it.

Could be another good opportunity for Sony to come out in a big way to say 'fuck what the other guys are doing, we're doing it this way'. Hashtag for the gamers and so on.

Like the entire used games debacle that they masterfully capitalized on last time, leaving Microsoft with egg on their face.
Microsoft seems hellbent on changing the industry to their vision and the gaming audience has by and large given them the finger in the process.

 

[jwillenn]

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

 

[Arion]

They don't make commercially successful games. Their games are incredibly fun to play but have zero mass market appeal.

Why should I care for how commercially successful their games are? I am a consumer, I want good games. The profit margins of giant corps don't concern me.

 

[jelly]

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
My take on all this, and I've been seeing this for a while, is that Microsoft is transitioning all their games to the 'live service' model.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Basically Microsoft want to have their games emulate what Minecraft has been able to do.
Long lifecycle, large user base, Increased spend.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Microsoft's future direction is about being able to offer the Xbox games and live services on multiple devices that run Windows 10.

That blows. Who wants to play on Xbox if that is the direction and I like Xbox

 

[The Antitype]

Wonderful 101 is very far from sloppy and B tier.

Your title makes sense.

 

[Mikey Jr.]

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
My take on all this, and I've been seeing this for a while, is that Microsoft is transitioning all their games to the 'live service' model.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Basically Microsoft want to have their games emulate what Minecraft has been able to do.
Long lifecycle, large user base, Increased spend.

Daniel Ahmad ‏@ZhugeEX
Microsoft's future direction is about being able to offer the Xbox games and live services on multiple devices that run Windows 10.

Ewwww.

If you are an Xbox guy and you like this direction, then more power to you.

But man, fuck that shit, lol.

 

[Kaelan]

That blows. Who wants to play on Xbox if that is the direction and I like Xbox

Exactly. Sounds like bad news to me..

 

[D4Danger]

It's not shitposting unless they specifically said I HOPE the game gets cancelled. It's an honest, and very possible situation, evidenced as the rest of my post: the Scalebound situation has shown anything can happen. So up until Cuphead actually comes out, some people may legitimately think the worst.

literally explained in this thread.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=227963884#post227963884

 

[facetheslayer92]

As someone who largely plays single player, narrative driven games, this sounds rather horrible. RIP Alan Wake 2

I believe Remedy is done with single player games according to them.

 

[watership]

It would be foolish to place the blame solely on PG. perhaps ideas and expectations did not align.

I don't think it's 100 percent their fault. Yet, even if the game had low sales projections, MS would have released it. They've released big budget, buggy, bad games. This smells like the game was in bad shape, why else take it off the board completely?

 

[RedSparrows]

Boo! Sucks. I wanted this.

MS keep making good sounds, and then bad moves. Bah.

 

[bidguy]

Pretty much what Y2KEV and I were saying a few pages back. It's fairly clear now.

yea, im sure its clear now, after they cancelled a mismanaged moneypit of a game

 

[Fat4all]

Your title makes sense.

W101 is a fantastic game, you're out of your skull.

 

[Teeth]

Mind linking me?

Hi. Cuphead will come out.

 

[F0rneus]

Exactly what I and some devs I spoken to feel.

Not like this MS....not like this.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Cancelling Fabel Legends was such a step in the right direction towards achieving this.

Yeah, I'm not sure how a F2P game doesn't fit into the "new and different" MS mindset. Of course, MS has been almost completely absent on the F2P front, as if they understand the monetization but don't get how to release these games.

 

[Gamezone]

Man, all that work only to have it cancelled.... Must feel like a kick to the gut top all the people that worked so hard on it. Should've been cancelled at alpha stages not this late.

Fable Legends development was also very late.

 

[Barry Burton]

No matter the impression footage gave, losing a Hideki Kamiya game is a crying shame. Him and his teams consistently surprise and delight, and rarely even in more immediately impressive showing games are all the nuances and specialties of said games showcased. There's always a richness to the game systems that continue throughout the experience and well into second and third playthroughs, with strong replay value and secrets to unlock.

They're consistent in these qualities, somehow blending straight character action with a sense of discovery and growth as you learn and master mechanics and the nuances within. And basically every single Kamiya game is like this, dating all the way back to his work with Capcom.

I know he's not a sole factor in the quality of his games, but respect where respect is due, and much of my hype for Scalebound can be directly attributed to his portfolio and how each and every one of his games has resonated with me. I might have been a bit lukewarm on the footage so far, but I was sold on the title on talent alone. To lose that is a loss for everyone on principle.

Maybe it was a disaster, maybe it didn't work out, maybe Platinum is at fault, maybe Microsoft, maybe nobody; who knows. But as of writing we'll never actually know what Kamiya had cooking, and that saddens me.

Props to Kamiya and the rest of the crew at Platinum for giving it a solid crack, and hopefully the title and team can find footing elsewhere soon.

Exactly how I'm feeling right now. The next game from the creator of Okami, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Bayonetta won't be coming out. Regardless of whose fault it is, this sucks for everyone.

 

[Parmenide]

It didin't look very good but that's just my humble opinion, I wish the best to Kamiya and P*, NieR 2 looks great, hope it sells well.

 

[Neonep]

They're stagnating. Giving up on the Dragons Dogma IP is a joke. Fair enough the first was a bit of a cult classic, but in a world where Souls sells gangbusters Dragons Dogma 2 can have a nice piece of pie. That MMO was Japan only and Deep Down was just... why? Why start making something so similar to Dragons Dogma under a new name? Scrap that piece of shit that's constantly "still in development guys, honest" and do Dragons Dogma 2, multiplatform.

Dragon's Dogma 2 was probably discussed but they realized that Devil May Cry 5 would make them more cash and is more popular of a franchise so they went with that.

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

 

[randomengine]

What if Scorpio gets cancelled too?

 

[vinnygambini]

I was actually really looking forward to this one. Kinda sad. Hope another publisher steps in and completes the project.

 

[oti]

Cancelling Fabel Legends was such a step in the right direction towards achieving this.

Right? I thought the main point of cancelling Fable was that MS didn't want to allocate the resources into this ongoing service game. And now everything is supposed to become a service? Sounds odd.

 

[rocketskates]

What's up with all the posts saying Nintendo should pick up the game and stuff. Since when this is a usual thing for Nintendo?

Bayonetta 2. Situations are different which others may not be aware of, or are simply posting PG can make a game extremely similar to this, like a spiritual successor with Nintendo or Sony.

 

[IgotElbows]

I am disappointed, but unlike most here, I'm not assuming it is big bad MS's fault. The project was clearly in rough waters, the last few gameplay showings were incredibly underwhelming.

I think Kamiya and PG probably got in over their heads in terms of what they wanted to do with the game, found out a lot of it wasn't as easy as they thought, got overwhelmed, started falling behind.

At some point it just becomes throwing good money after bad. At this point MS could probably finish it and not spend a penny on marketing (remember marketing can cost just as much as development), but then everyone here would be blaming them for not marketing it well when it flopped. MS is in a no win scenario, especially since this seems to be a repeat of Fable Legends.

I can't fault them for cutting their losses. They aren't the market leader. They already dumped a lot of money on the risk, and it wasn't panning out. Sunk costs are irrelevant, so even though they already spent 3-4 years and who knows how many millions supporting PG, looking forward it must have been in such a bad place that they saw no possible way for it to be worth it, even as a diversity title.

It sucks, no doubt about it. But this isn't some arbitrary and capricious decision by malicious Phil Spencer in an attempt to turn Xbox into a HALOGEARSFORZA only machine. I'm positive there is some fault to lay at both parties. But we've seen both Sony and MS separating the wheat from the chaff. Studios that finish projects on time and on budget are more valuable than ones that are wildcards. Project management is just as important as development and vision.

Who knows, maybe if MS kept pouring money down the drain, this game would have come out to 10/10s and sold 10 million consoles in Japan it's first week, and every PS4 owner would switch consoles just to play it. But most likely it would have come out, been really buggy, not charted on NPD, and been used as laughing stock and fanboy fodder and only damaged the brand more. It's a no win scenario, and I'm bummed I'll never play this game.

This does make me wonder.
Would it be better/more profitable, if they just took the MGSV route?
"Okay, where are you in development? Halfway done? K. Well, wrap it up. Stop the story on a cliff hanger if you have to. You have 4 months to polish. Hurry and good luck."

At least people would get a game, even if it wasn't a whole game.
Kinda am curious if people would prefer unfinished games or just no game at all.

 

[The Antitype]

I've never seen so much angst over the cancellation of a game that demoed like shit multiple times...

Is it a Japanese game thing?

 

[pswii60]

I hope Platinum survives this.

That's my main concern.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Get excited that in all likelihood they really will focus on PC now because of their new strategy. For the first time in a long time I'm hopeful that MS will actually do right by PC gaming because it's essential for their new strategy.

So is the Scorpio dead on arrival now? Or is Microsoft officially going third-party games only? Because that won't make a lick of sense when the PS4 has third party games AND great first party support.

I can't believe we live in a world where Microsoft has worse console potential than NINTENDO.

 

[Famassu]

So did Platinum Games make a crappy game that was never going to get finished? Or was it so horrible, that MS said, "This will hurt us if it's released" and canned it?

Sounds like Platinum maybe run into some trouble with it being such a large scale game & having a big online multiplayer component and MS decided they don't want to fund the game's development for so long that those issues could be solved and the game finished. The game seemed unpolished in its showings (which isn't shocking, no one is going to make a big scale coop action RPG in 3 years) but never like it was some total disaster that wasn't working at all. It wasn't the open world coop over the top character action game like Devil May Cry most people probably anticipated it to be like, more like Okami with more of a DMC aesthetic and dragon flying.