Did MS really have first parties. Gears was from Epic Games, they paid off Rockstar and Activision for exclusive deals on GTA and COD..... Mass Effect was from Bioware. Bioshock was from 2k Boston, Ninja Gaiden 2 from Tecmo and a whole list more......These were the games that mainly shaped the 360. They weren't directly from MS studios. Halo was still popular and Halo 3 did well. so after Reach Halo began a steep decline. Forza got good scores but didn't sell all that well. 343i is not doing as well for the franchise, It seems MS wants a Halo to absolutely tank in reviews and sales before they get the message. Same for Gears. They need to focus on new franchises/ip that have the same impact as these games from their first party studios. Not on SOT, SOD, Everwild etc.....
The problem is when your best games don't come from your first parties studios is that they can leave. Even a first party opted out in Bungie, Remedy cut ties, Insomniac had a one and done exclusive. The real question you need to ask is which of these studiops at MS do you see giving them a new game that is on the level and status of Gears and Halo in their brighter years, that's what they need, yet all they have are mostly Indie Studios....Phil loves Ori and he's porting it yet again, but that is not going to sell Series X machines, neither is cuphead despite those games being decent games, they are not hardware sellers...
Also if we go by "should have been exclusive "Assassins Creed 1 should have been PS3 exclusive, that is, if we listened to Jade Raymond and her speech, but it was actually better on 360, so your only guarantee is when your actual first parties is making your best games....In the 360 gen, all the high profile timed exclusive games came to PS3 eventually, even RDR, which I did not even mention earlier...XBOX subsisted on these deals, not because of their first party......It's a different situation for Sony though, with the PS3, it was just an onslaught of Warhawk, Uncharted, Demon Souls, Killzone 2, Motorstorm, MAG, GOW, LBP, Journey, GT5, LOU etc...And the third party exclusives that usually never get ported to the XBOX, like MGS4 and many Japanese games like Persona are Goty calibre games which round out the library......Yet MS needs some franchises to come about hitting homeruns out of their own stable. The Initiative is too small to compete with ND, the studios MS bought are just not in the same class, so much so Sony let go of a high calibre studio in Evo, especially if we talk graphics related, whilst MS studios struggle to make a visual footprint....
People are still saying give them time. but MS has had nothing but time. Crackdown and SOT were in development for years. Even Rare is not sure of what they're doing with Everwild
yet, so it just shows they are behind, when all media was saying they are ahead for next gen....That's why Phil in his interviews always say things are on track, but it's rarely ever the case, he has been saying give him more time from the time he took over and it's not like he wasn't around before then too, he was second in charge....All the time he got for Crackdown and SOT and he still did not deliver, this is why he piggy backs on another port of Ori or singing about older games ported up to 4k 60fps, which PS5 will do also....Yet PS5 has shown us gameplay of many next gen games already. When PS5 hits in November, BC is not going to save XBOX, people will be marvelling at Miles Morales, Destruction All Stars amongst others, that ship will sail very fast. And the issue is Phil always giving his customers a false sense of security..."we got this" but hey never do.....That's a setup for wearing away the little goodwill you have left and sinking the brand into obscurity.....
Hence me mentioning second parties. They had a lot of second party releases. Epic, Bioware and others were parts of that. But when Bioware was up for sale Microsoft was an idiot for NOT picking them up and letting EA buy them out from under them. Mass Effect was one of the big new IPs that gen and they lost exclusivity. MS needed titles immediately for the 360 and did what it had to do to get them fast, but they never capitalized on that. Look at Sony, they bought a second party like insomniac, they let their first party studios flourish. MS under Mattrick did the opposite, their Japanese studios all shuttered, they treated Bungie like shit, and pretty much went from there.
As far as giving them time, Ok, let's look at the 15 MS studios that exist:
Obsidian: Acquired less than two years ago, November 2018, was in the middle of finishing The Outer Worlds during that time, as well as PoE2 updates. So assuming they were able to move on to Avowed immediately, well a year and a half development on a title isn't going to be close to being shown, especially a Skyrim style game.
InExile: Also November 2018. Still working on Wasteland 3, which will likely still be multipolar. Just released director's cut of Bard's Tale 4 last year. So whatever they have is also likely early in development.
Ninja Theory: Bought in June 2018, so two years ago. Hellblade came out initially 3 years ago, and the team has been growing. Hellblade 2 is likely late next year, but it has been said to be a XSX exclusive, and we have the smaller arcade-y game coming in the interim.
PLayground Games: WOrking on Fable, bought in June 2018, had DLC for Forza Horizon 4 to handle.
Compulsion Games: Also bought June 2018, small team so likely working on smaller projects, new game not announced.
Undead Labs: Bought June 2018, working on State of Decay 3, another very small team. Not sure if they are hiring for next gen.
The initiative: Founded in 2018 No idea what they are working on, rumors have it as something big.
Mojang: Will keep doing Minecraft, it will never be doing anything exclusive, but might as well mention them.
Rare: Everwild and Battletoads. Sea of Thieves has been a big success for them. But no one can say that the studio was handled well. MS screwed the pooch with them, and hey... also under Mattrick.
343: Microsoft's biggest studio. Halo Infinite, and well that is what it is. Hope it comes out well, but it was also designed for this gen. Has been in development hell for a long ass time.
The Coalition: Probably their strongest Studio. Gears 5 was great, and no doubt they are working on Gears 6 right now, but it will be at least another year before that is ready to be shown, if not longer.
Turn 10: Forza.
Double Fine: Bought by MS last year. Psychonauts 2, a last gen game that is promised for all the current gen systems. Won't be able to do anything next gen until that is done. Thye are NOT a big team.
So looking over all of those, see a trend? They started buying these studios in 2018, which is also when they started working on more Xbox studios titles. It can take YEARS for that to bear fruit. Yeah, Crackdown 3 was a mess, but other than that they have been pretty good over the last few years with what they HAVE published. Ori was a hit, Forza remains strong, and Gears 5 was great. The problem is that you cannot snap the boneheaded decisions of killing their first and second party studios (or letting the second parties go. Remedy SHOULD Have been held on to, because it filled a niche even if they weren't pulling Halo numbers). They started righting that ship two years ago, and the sad thing is that we aren't going to see the fruits of that until MINIMUM late 2021, likely 2022.
As was said before, it took Sony YEARS of purchases and nurturing their teams to be able to deliver the consistent quality they have now. MS has essentially had to start from scratch as all the work they did for 360 and even the OG were burned to the ground.
