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[Markoman]

How would Fable fans feel if MS contracted FROM to Soulsify a new Fable game?

Kinda like MS's own version of Bloodborne but set in the Fable universe?

Worst idea I've heard in a while. To be honest after 5 games with the same basic formula, I don't want them to do another one. Fable was a nice series, but I never liked the artstyle, Souls gameplay won't help with that.
I'd rather want From to do a Tenchu game.

Edit: I'm getting old, was this tanned guy with perfect teeth in Caddyshack or Happy Gilmore?

 

[phantasmic_glaive]

I'd say nioh for sure, unless Sony has some kind of deal. That one is an easy sell in comparison to the others. And maybe KH remastered just because 3 is also coming and it has brand recognition

I don't see the reason for bringing the rest because they have zero selling potential

What? The bolded contradicts the very comments you just made.

MS don't need a select few games that'll make them look good, per se or "selling potential". They should be vying for all of them. It's not like these games been setting the charts on fire on PlayStation in the first place. Does that stop them? Nope.

Nioh has a deal.. pretty sure it spans back to PS3 days.

Its all those games he listed is why PlayStation been the go to system for diversity. It's a damn shame it takes em 3 generations to figure this out.

 

[Hexer06]

Everyone keeps saying that Phil has been saying this for 2+ years now... Which is true. He's also said he didn't like announcing games too early.. How long do (good, AAA) games take to make? Usually 3-4 years if they are wanting something really fleshed out, right? So assuming he had some projects started when he became Head of Xbox, or when he was able to (since they already had games planned and in development), wouldn't those games just now be coming at this year's E3 or possibly next year? He can't just come in there, say "we need 1st party!" and then a year or two later, amazing 1st party games are made. I'm hoping for some big surprises this E3, and I will definitely be upset if there aren't any. But man, ppl act like there's literally no games coming to Xbox to keep it alive. We've already gotten a lot of really good exclusives and I'm looking forward to the big 3 they've already stated for this year. This dogpiling on Xbox has been getting outta control on here lately. :/

 

[formasymphonic]

I think Phil is still getting the benefit of the doubt, he's been there 3 years. This year has been plenty of time to develop something. So this E3 has got to be something special or it's game over man.

I dont understand the "he was only head of xbox gor only 3 years" comments. He's been head of first party since 09.

I was gonna mention this:

For those who have forgotten, or didn't know — Prior to be being the Xbox VP, Spencer was the head of Microsoft Studios and before that the head of Microsoft Game Studios.

He has been responsible for MS's first party (or lack of) for many, many years now . He didn't just turn up after Mattrick went. I know that corporate policy has a lot of moving parts, but I definitely don't think he should be getting any of the leniency people seem to think he is due.

(EDIT: I don't remember the exact years but he's been VP since 2014, been head of MS Studios since at least 2008ish, and was head of MS Game Studios EMEA before that, so he's been involved at a high level for maybe like a decade?)

 

[rrc1594]

I mean timing is just shitty TBH. It's just happens a lot of great games are coming out that are Japanese that aren't coming to Xbox. By the end of the year their line up should be

Sea of Thieves(New IP)
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2
State of Decay

That's not a bad line-up. Spacing is shit tho. On top of that we nothing look forward to in 2018

 

[blakep267]

What? The bolded contradicts the very comments you just made.

MS don't need a select few games that'll make them look good, per se or "selling potential". They should be vying for all of them. It's not like these games been setting the charts on fire on PlayStation in the first place. Does that stop them? Nope.

Nioh has a deal.. pretty sure it spans back to PS3 days.

Its all those games he listed is why PlayStation been the go to system for diversity. It's a damn shame it takes em 3 generations to figure this out.

i was saying Nioh and KH would actually sell. Nier and persona aren't. So if your going to get publishers on board and make sales, choose the games that will actually sell

Your just wasting money publishing those other games. Unless you only have them available digitally

 

[DriftingSpirit]

What? The bolded contradicts the very comments you just made.

MS don't need a select few games that'll make them look good, per se or "selling potential". They should be vying for all of them. It's not like these games been setting the charts on fire on PlayStation in the first place. Does that stop them? Nope.

Nioh has a deal.. pretty sure it spans back to PS3 days.

Its all those games he listed is why PlayStation been the go to system for diversity. It's a damn shame it takes em 3 generations to figure this out.

Agreed.

It shouldn't matter whether they can be big sellers or not. Just get the games on the platform. It is the collective that matters in this case more than one individual game.

 

[Markoman]

Everyone keeps saying that Phil has been saying this for 2+ years now... Which is true. He's also said he didn't like announcing games too early.. How long do (good, AAA) games take to make? Usually 3-4 years if they are wanting something really fleshed out, right? So assuming he had some projects started when he became Head of Xbox, or when he was able to (since they already had games planned and in development), wouldn't those games just now be coming at this year's E3 or possibly next year? He can't just come in there, say "we need 1st party!" and then a year or two later, amazing 1st party games are made. I'm hoping for some big surprises this E3, and I will definitely be upset if there aren't any. But man, ppl act like there's literally no games coming to Xbox to keep it alive. We've already gotten a lot of really good exclusives and I'm looking forward to the big 3 they've already stated for this year. This dogpiling on Xbox has been getting outta control on here lately. :/

Context is everything. Nintendo is able to survive on critically acclaimed 1st party games alone.
6 high caliber games have been released from Dec until now on PS, you can't play on Xbox.
And all of those aren't even Sony's big guns. After this spring PS owners can already anticipate a new wave of big titles for 2018/2019: GOW, Spiderman, Tlou 2, Death Stranding. On Xbox we already had the first round of usual suspects and it's clear that sequels will come with not much else atm.

 

[neoglow]

Good ol' Phil spouting clap-trap again.

Phil mate, right now the Xbox needs any "party" it can get. First party, third party, whatever party, hey and maybe some new IP's, there's an idea!

Spoiler

rolleyesmeme

 

[Shock32]

I was gonna mention this:

For those who have forgotten, or didn't know — Prior to be being the Xbox VP, Spencer was the head of Microsoft Studios and before that the head of Microsoft Game Studios.

He has been responsible for MS's first party (or lack of) for many, many years now. He didn't just turn up after Mattrick went. I know that corporate policy has a lot of moving parts, but I definitely don't think he should be getting any of the leniency people seem to think he is due.

I see, I knew he was there in some capacity but I didn't realize he was head of first party. That kinda makes this situation really bad then.

 

[modsbox]

We've already gotten a lot of really good exclusives and I'm looking forward to the big 3 they've already stated for this year. This dogpiling on Xbox has been getting outta control on here lately. :/

A lot of really good exclusives? Sunset, Halo 5, Gears 4, Forza in 3.5 years vs the PS4 portfolio is... not a good look. At all.

Another way to put it is, if you have a PS4 it's way too easy to feel as though you're missing nothing by not having an Xbone. Sold mine a year ago and am excited about Scorpio but they really need to bring some must-buy games to the table.

Think about it. Recent must-buys from basically every genre (save racing I guess?) on PS4. Even Switch has a must-buy, so good people are happily buying a $300 system for it.

Meanwhile on Xbox there's nothing right now, and on top of that basically nothing coming soon even getting attention. Sea of Thieves, maybe? Crackdown 3 maybe but it's hard to get people hyped when they haven't shown anything for almost two years and it doesn't have a release date.

Meanwhile you've got Horizon and Zelda BotW as pure exclusive system sellers on the other platforms. Microsoft's E3 needs to be crazy. I know that's Phil's strategy, but they desperately need to bring it.

 

[LordBaztion]

MS is so risk averse that, I think, they should license popular IPs outside gaming, get the right deveoper and make a game based on it.
I would like a western AAA game based on Ghost in the Shell, or Matrix to be more widespread appealing.

I mean timing is just shitty TBH. It's just happens a lot of great games are coming out that are Japanese that aren't coming to Xbox. By the end of the year their line up should be

Sea of Thieves(New IP)
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2
State of Decay

That's not a bad line-up. Spacing is shit tho. On top of that we nothing look forward to in 2018

That's not bad either. Their main problem was announcing games too early. I suppose they are trying to prevent that. The question is, did they started building new games back in 2016 (when they decided to focus their presentations only on games to be released soon) or they are just starting after their precarious situation became evident with Scalebound. 2015 was a poor year for announcements too but at least that year they had games already in development to focus on those instead.

 

[Tagyhag]

Honestly it'll all come down to E3.

Unless they announce like 3 new IP's, it's going to look bad for Scorpio.

 

[spannicus]

Im only human after all put the blame on me!

 

[phantasmic_glaive]

i was saying Nioh and KH would actually sell. Nier and persona aren't. So if your going to get publishers on board and make sales, choose the games that will actually sell

Your just wasting money publishing those other games. Unless you only have them available digitally

I hear you but those games are only going to sell if you have a base for it, a demographic. You were saying what MS was actually trying to do, which isn't bad thinking, just wrong thinking.

MS's thinking behind this subject, and frankly any business, was to get behind japans biggest publisher and get their biggest games (FFXV & KH3) and the rest will follow. Yea, that might've worked if PlayStation didn't exist. You don't just stop there... you keep at the rest.

This gen could've been PS4 and Xbone all the way if MS/ Phil were doing what needed to be done. But instead Sony just stiffed em out; "Give us console exclusivity and we'll promote the game.. you can even put it on PC!"

I fear a competionless future. I want MS to get back in the game.

 

[Hexer06]

Context is everything. Nintendo is able to survive on critically acclaimed 1st party games alone.
6 high caliber games have been released from Dec until now on PS, you can't play on Xbox.
And all of those aren't even Sony's big guns. After this spring PS owners can already anticipate a new wave of big titles for 2018/2019: GOW, Spiderman, Tlou 2, Death Stranding. On Xbox we already had the first round of usual suspects and it's clear that sequels will come with not much else atm.

I understand that, but we both know death stranding isn't coming for at the VERY very least, 2 years. I expect 3 or 4 personally. I'm looking forward to all of those you listed. But that's also Sony being Sony and announcing games years before they'll come out. Phil said he doesn't like doing that anymore, so the games they have planned for '18/19,we won't know about til this year's E3 or next. I prefer that personally. Yeah FF7 remake and shenmue 3 (Kickstarter) was hype as fuck. But I also knew I wouldn't see those for 3+ years. Again, if they don't show anything new at this E3, feel free to mark these words and bash me later. But I think it's too soon to say Xbox doesn't haven't anything for 2018 or 2019,or even surprises for this year.

 

[Liabe Brave]

I mean MS might contact unknown dev team to make games for them, which have a chance to become the next Playground/Double Helix.

Ah, okay. But Double Helix and Supermassive had done years of work on AAA franchises before Killer Instinct and Until Dawn. Those titles weren't left-field surprises, they were just releases by well-established studios that caught the public's attention more than previous work. So if we're going to see that again, you're talking about a known-quantity dev, not an upstart.

As for Playground, they were formed as a studio-for-hire working on Forza from the very start. It would be very surprising if Microsoft has been hiding one of those for the past several years (because why not build hype for them?). Though I guess it's not impossible.

 

[Chris1]

A lot of really good exclusives? Sunset, Halo 5, Gears 4, Forza in 3.5 years vs the PS4 portfolio is... not a good look. At all.

I mean it's all personal preference anyways but you literally missed out on a lot of games there. It's kinda hard to take people serious when they do that. Quantum Break? Titanfall 1? 2 of each Forzas, Ori and the blind forest, etc etc..

Xbox has put out a lot of good exclusives this gen, to say otherwise is kind of ridiculous tbh. Sure the metacritic scores may not be as good as Zelda or whatever but their output this gen has been good. Not as amazing as the 360's first few years obviously but good. Could be better but that goes for everything really - there's always room for improvement. Most peoples worries come from 2018 onwards which we know nothing about, but to me it's too early to start worrying yet when we have E3 around the corner and will find out what's coming in 2018 there.

 

[Hexer06]

A lot of really good exclusives? Sunset, Halo 5, Gears 4, Forza in 3.5 years vs the PS4 portfolio is... not a good look. At all.

Another way to put it is, if you have a PS4 it's way too easy to feel as though you're missing nothing by not having an Xbone. Sold mine a year ago and am excited about Scorpio but they really need to bring some must-buy games to the table.

Think about it. Recent must-buys from basically every genre (save racing I guess?) on PS4. Even Switch has a must-buy, so good people are happily buying a $300 system for it.

Meanwhile on Xbox there's nothing right now, and on top of that basically nothing coming soon even getting attention. Sea of Thieves, maybe? Crackdown 3 maybe but it's hard to get people hyped when they haven't shown anything for almost two years and it doesn't have a release date.

Meanwhile you've got Horizon and Zelda BotW as pure exclusive system sellers on the other platforms. Microsoft's E3 needs to be crazy. I know that's Phil's strategy, but they desperately need to bring it.

I'm at work right now or I'd put more effort into my answer for this but, you missed a few titles. You may not like them, but they exist and there are ppl that do like them, like myself. A few include Quantum Break, Ori, Recore, and most recently Halo Wars 2. If you have a great gaming pc, then I can almost see your point. But majority of gamers that play consoles, usually don't.

 

[SOR5]

Im only human after all put the blame on me!

Hahaha

 

[chaosmaster(1)]

One thing that would be a start for making the system appealing to Japanese devs is lowering the minimum print requirement. That instantly just shuts them out from even considering it as a platform to port to.

I understand they want to be the services box but that doesn't mean that people interested in Japanese games don't play service games. As a platform holder the more genres and quantity they have makes their platform more vibrant. The 360 was a heavy shooter box but at the same time that system was doing great for a lot of genres and it got a great amount of Japanese support.

 

[Fortuneelsewhere]

I believe ms have some exclusives not announced ready to be shown along with Scorpio in their fullest capacity.. these games will still play in xb1 but they will be massively downgraded..

I think Spenser knew quite early that this gen was lost for Sony and started imidiatly working on Scorpio and how to force an early gen shift.. my bet is that their really strategy for Xbox will only start now with Scorpio and for the last 3, 5 years they were preparing that..

Besides this i think that will be several third party games really being pushed hard to show Scorpio advantage power over PS4 Pro.

I want ms to get back on the fight. It will only be good for the business.. let's see..

 

[Crayon]

One thing that would be a start for making the system appealing to Japanese devs is lowering the minimum print requirement. That instantly just shuts them out from even considering it as a platform to port to.

I understand they want to be the services box but that doesn't mean that people interested in Japanese games don't play service games. As a platform holder the more genres and quantity they have makes their platform more vibrant. The 360 was a heavy shooter box but at the same time that system was doing great for a lot of genres and it got a great amount of Japanese support.

Do they still have that requirement? No way.

 

[chaosmaster(1)]

Do they still have that requirement? No way.

I was under the assumption they still did cause I haven't read anything stating otherwise.

 

[Crayon]

I was under the assumption they still did cause I haven't read anything stating otherwise.

If so, that's nuts. And you are right. They should lift it.

 

[Shpeshal Nick]

Hard times to be an Xbox fan. Hopefully they come out of E3 with some big surprises but I don't really see it happening. Shame they shuttered Lionhead and cancelled the Fable franchise because a new, return to form Fable game would be an amazing Scorpio launch title.

Right now there is only one game that interests me on the Xbox horizon and that's State of Decay 2. That's pretty crazy.

Really?

New hardware coming out, Crackdown 3, State of Decay, Forza 7, Sea of Thieves, Cuphead plus a nice OS update (I mean let's be honest, we even got excited for 4.50 here).

Why is it hard? Or is it simply perceived as hard by Sony fans showing concern?

 

[The Salt Life]

According to Microsoft, they have State of Decay 2, Crackdown 3 and Sea of Thieves slated for this year.

Forza Motorsport 7 is definitely coming. Halo 6 and Gears 5 are not.

Halo 3 Anniversary is a possibility, but I feel like they would gain a lot of brownie points if they released it as a free update for TMCC instead (alongside a PC version).

No no no, do it stand alone away from TMCC, give it away free with Scorprio.

 

[Fisty]

One thing I just don't fucking get... How many studios could they have bought for the 2.5 billion they spent on Minecraft? That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen from someone in their position. Complete waste of money, and is be willing to bet they NEVER recoup that investment, probably not even close

 

[rrc1594]

One thing I just don't fucking get... How many studios could they have bought for the 2.5 billion they spent on Minecraft? That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen from someone in their position. Complete waste of money, and is be willing to bet they NEVER recoup that investment, probably not even close

Buying Minecaft was a MS move not just a Xbox move. It was a smart investment.

 

[93xfan]

I'm ready for halo 3 anniversary at launch with a COMPLETELY FIXED master cheif collection for Scorpio and Xbox One. They owe this to every Halo fan and everyone who bought an Xbox One with the desire to play this poorly put together game.

Either that or Microsoft won't get my money. Without this, I'll enjoy watching them become further and further behind Sony.

 

[Trago]

I think one thing that people ignore a bit much is that what they lack in first party studios, they try to make up for in second party partnerships with publishers.

So when I see people saying not to expect much out of Microsoft because their first party studios are IP factories, I'm always scratching my head. Those second party titles are the wildcards and the fresh new things out of Microsoft. I really don't feel like compiling a list, but look at all the new IP's published by Microsoft this gen and you'll see that the majority of them have been out of partnerships spearheaded by them.

So why then are people saying that this E3 won't have much in store? I do agree that their first party situation needs to improve drastically, but when people ignore the new stuff that they've published from different developers, I'm sitting here like wtf.

 

[Mass Effect]

So take more time and money making a new open world RPG? Sounds like a very loooong dev process for a company that has had a hard time making money in that genre.

It would be relatively the same. You think Bethesda is a charity? No, they're going to want to be paid (handsomely) for taking away people and resources that would otherwise be working on Bethesda products.

Might as well just build a new internal studio at that point.

 

[EatinOlives]

Another day, another thread about Xbox's first party

With Horizon and Zelda it looks like Microsoft's shortcomings in first party as of late have really caught up to them.

 

[gamz]

One thing I just don't fucking get... How many studios could they have bought for the 2.5 billion they spent on Minecraft? That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen from someone in their position. Complete waste of money, and is be willing to bet they NEVER recoup that investment, probably not even close

Holy shit!

 

[PanicFreak]

With Horizon and Zelda it looks like Microsoft's shortcomings in first party as of late have really caught up to them.

Their line up is literally exactly the same as it was the day before Horizon showed up. This thread will look very silly if Crackdown and State of Decay review very well.

 

[TheUnsunghero26]

One thing I just don't fucking get... How many studios could they have bought for the 2.5 billion they spent on Minecraft? That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen from someone in their position. Complete waste of money, and is be willing to bet they NEVER recoup that investment, probably not even close

Minecraft is bigger than just gaming.

 

[gwiz210]

Phil Spencer is really good with PR talk. He says a lot that resonates with his crowd but the xbox brand has been hella undelivering lately. Either they have to come with games at e3 (Scorpio don't mean shit till it has games) or we'll just get more of this pr talk.

 

[Papacheeks]

I mean it's all personal preference anyways but you literally missed out on a lot of games there. It's kinda hard to take people serious when they do that. Quantum Break? Titanfall 1? 2 of each Forzas, Ori and the blind forest, etc etc..

Xbox has put out a lot of good exclusives this gen, to say otherwise is kind of ridiculous tbh. Sure the metacritic scores may not be as good as Zelda or whatever but their output this gen has been good. Not as amazing as the 360's first few years obviously but good. Could be better but that goes for everything really - there's always room for improvement. Most peoples worries come from 2018 onwards which we know nothing about, but to me it's too early to start worrying yet when we have E3 around the corner and will find out what's coming in 2018 there.

Quntumn break was mediocre. It had a story and gameplay that fell flat and the actual short episodes you watched were really bad. Titanfall I'll give you that, but then they didn't have a contract to keep that series on their system?

This past year and beginning of this year has shown the difference in studios. The last past months have shown the issues they have with diversity of library. It is cut and dry, and the fact they created new studios just like a couple years ago to try and make up the lack they have in their first party kind of proves peoples points.

MS has to bring games before people get excited about the hardware it's going to look the best on period.

 

[Breakage]

How are Microsoft going to whip up these new and compelling games in time for Scorpio?

 

[DwightSchruting]

I'm a day one owner and I've heard this plenty from him. Great guy and I'm proud he's leading the charge back. But when it comes to this topic? He's all talk and I think it's not because of him..I think it's things he can't control.

 

[righthandmouse]

He just sold me on a scorpio.
truth is I am getting it regardless, and I don't even care for their first party games anymore.
I accepted a long time ago that they will never release games that I am into. recore was cool though!

 

[HardRojo]

I like Phil Spencer, he was handed the Xbox division right after Don fucked up, and I know he had to do his best job to make the brand look good, but I'd rather see rather than be told.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Is he talking Halo/Gears/Forza 1st party, or did they bump up the courage to deliver us Crimson skies/Lost Odessey/Blue Dragon/ Sunset Overdrive 2?

I am excited to see how SOD2 turns out, the first one was decently fun but Jank as hell.

SOD2 doesn't exist.

 

[oti]

He just sold me on a scorpio.
truth is I am getting it regardless, and I don't even care for their first party games anymore.
I accepted a long time ago that they will never release games that I am into. recore was cool though!

He just sold me on a scorpio.

that's interesting, how did he do i-

truth is I am getting it regardless

well, alright then so he didn't really need to convin-

and I don't even care for their first party games anymore.

ok so then what exactly do you wa-

I accepted a long time ago that they will never release games that I am into.

ok so you're buying Scorpio becau-

recore was cool though!

alrighty then

 

[Chris1]

SOD2 doesn't exist.

State of Decay 2

 

[CalamityPixel]

SOD2 doesn't exist.

Yes it does. You're thinking of Sunset.

 

[righthandmouse]

that's interesting, how did he do i-


well, alright then so he didn't really need to convin-


ok so then what exactly do you wa-


ok so you're buying Scorpio becau-


alrighty then

I buy all consoles lol. I am one of those dudes. gotta upgrade my pc this fall too.

 

[oti]

I buy all consoles lol. I am one of those dudes. gotta upgrade my pc this fall too.

I own all consoles too. 😄🙌

I'm most likely skipping Scorpio though as I did with PS4 Pro. I'm good. I don't need the better tech.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

I'm sure Japanese developers are running after what happened with Scalebound

Spoiler

running away from Phil, I mean.

 

[Matt]

One thing I just don't fucking get... How many studios could they have bought for the 2.5 billion they spent on Minecraft? That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen from someone in their position. Complete waste of money, and is be willing to bet they NEVER recoup that investment, probably not even close

Yeah...you don't know what you're talking about.