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[Heisenberg007]

They need to invest in the Ori-franchise. And Psychonauts. Unique experiences like Pentiment. Games that comes out of left field and surprises and excites.

Ori is my favorite XGS franchise, and I'd love another game. Having said that, that's not what Xbox needs to do.

Games like Ori, psychonauts, Pentiment, Grounded, Bleeding Edge, etc. is a category that can easily be handled by Indie developers and publishers. That happens all the time and often at a better level, e.g., Hollow Knight, Hades, Salt & Sanctuary, Ghost Song, Disco Elysium, etc.

MS is one of the biggest companies in the world. They need to act like it when it comes to gaming and offer gaming experiences that align with that stature.

Make blockbuster games like TLOU 2, God of War Ragnarok, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Ghost of Tsushima. Make truly AAA or AAAA games that smaller companies cannot do. That should be their USP, the thing that sets them apart.

 

[fatmarco]

Microsoft doesn't necessarily need new IP's, it just needs to successfully manage and utilise the IP's they have at their disposal, and that's what they keep failing to do. Commissioning more third party developers to produce games that are actually AAA would be a start. Then again given that their main issue is project management across the board, I just don't see them being able to produce large scale blockbuster titles with any consistency any time soon.

It also doesn't help that they've ended their efforts into game preservation and backwards compatibility given that, at the very least, it was a differentiating feature for the brand.

It is genuinely scary to imagine what would have happened to Xbox without Gamepass.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Its all boils down to this

These 2 are the ones that would deliver, what you want.?

Is not what I want

Is:

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to become successful?​

And is :

AAA/GOTY/NewIPs consistently.
All 3.

To get a goty, or what ever you are looking

Is not what I want

Is:

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to become successful?​

for, they would need to make new IPs. And they need to drop those games consistantly.

And AAA.

That way, they could have a hit or two. Until then, wait for them to hit that train.

Nothing happens magically. It takes time.

No shit Sherlock.

What did I said?:

MS could start to turn things around at the beginning of next gen (if everything goes right).

Games like pentiment while great, ain't what XBOX/MS NEEDS.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Make blockbuster games like TLOU 2, God of War Ragnarok, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Ghost of Tsushima. Make truly AAA or AAAA games that smaller companies cannot do. That should be their USP, the thing that sets them apart.

How will this set them apart?

These games are already being made by other companies.

 

[Topher]

How will this set them apart?

These games are already being made by other companies.

I believe he saying Microsoft needs to make games as the same caliber as those, not recreate those exact games. And he is right. And Microsoft knows this. That is why they have been buying studios.

 

[feynoob]

Why do you try to force your opinion on others and why do people have to acknowledge anything?

Because you can praise them, while criticizing their short coming. You cant just defend something, and ignore the bad part.

Why do you pretend to know how « fans » feel about the brand or service?

You are right. Fans should just happily take with MS feeds them, and not question them at all. Got it.

Let me give you my perspective:
- I have an XSX and a slightly aging PC;
- I pay for GPU;
- I have seen a steady stream of games I have enjoyed in the service this year. The list is too long to be quoted but stuff like Total War Warhammer 3, Tunic, Immortality, Weird West, Norco, Hitman Trilogy and many others;
- What am I supposed to be upset about? Does it matter that those games are not exclusive when it would have cost me the price of a Series console to buy them all?

There is different between 1st party drop, and 3rd party. MS lacked 1st party for a long time. Their newest IP was Sea of theives. They need more work. They cant even do a simple lockdown games like ff7 or forspoken,

Your argument seems to be that MS is bad because they don’t have God of War or Spider-Man and that’s a fair opinion. But not everyone thinks that and personally I don’t give a shit about either, give me a good, well curated service offering AA and indie games and I’ll be delighted.

So in short, I’m not acknowledging shit.

People need new fresh IP, and more consistant. Until MS/Xbox gets that right, people would be upset.

 

[feynoob]

Is not what I want

Is:

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to become successful?​

And is :

AAA/GOTY/NewIPs consistently.
All 3.


Is not what I want

Is:

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to become successful?​

And AAA.



No shit Sherlock.

What did I said?:

MS could start to turn things around at the beginning of next gen (if everything goes right).

Games like pentiment while great, ain't what XBOX/MS NEEDS.

You are trying to define what makes them succesful. That is your view point. Especially that "GOTY". Its is what "You" want them to do.

Though I can 100% agree with you, that they need new AAA IPs. They need something different than halo, gears, forza.

 

[fatmarco]

Games like Ori, psychonauts, Pentiment, Grounded, Bleeding Edge, etc. is a category that can easily be handled by Indie developers and publishers. That happens all the time and often at a better level, e.g., Hollow Knight, Hades, Salt & Sanctuary, Ghost Song, Disco Elysium, etc.

It's very funny to think that they spent time making Bleeding Edge when those developers could have been helping get Hellblade 2 out the door. And you're right, given the expected scale of a 1st party developer, it really doesn't make sense to have their main development studios split their resources on multiple smaller projects concurrently while they are working on something massive at the same time.

Grounded and Pentiment are cool games, I'm glad they exist, but the Xbox doesn't need those games right now, they need Avowed, they need Outer Worlds 2, and they need the Fallout IP to be exploited.

Slowing down the development of big titles to create diverse small titles to fill out Gamepass when the console already has an identity / marketing problem around blockbuster titles is just not intelligent in the slightest.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I believe he saying Microsoft needs to make games as the same caliber as those, not recreate those exact games. And he is right. And Microsoft knows this. That is why they have been buying studios.

They make games of same caliber.

An area of improvement I can think of would be, aim high. Let games like Halo Infinite realise their potential and reach the masses.

That's about it.

No need to change fundamentally the type of games they make.

 

[Topher]

They make games of same caliber.

An area of improvement I can think of would be, aim high. Let games like Halo Infinite realise their potential and reach the masses.

That's about it.

No need to change fundamentally the type of games they make.

Thankfully, Phil Spencer disagrees with you. I think the vast majority of gamers disagree with you. If you are happy with Xbox games then that is fine, but I don't think one can realistically look at Xbox the last 10 years and say their first party output doesn't need fundamental changes. And, again, that's what the acquisitions are for.

 

[feynoob]

They make the same games.

That is their issue. You need new IPs. People get tired of your IPs, if you keep milking them off.

How many halo, forza, and gears are out there? Its too much.

MS needs new different breed of IPs.

For example, Sony made Horizon and Ghost of tsushima. That is 2 new brand IP, which they got by shelving their old IPs. MS needs to do the same.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

You are trying to define what makes them succesful. That is your view point. Especially that "GOTY". Its is what "You" want them to do.

Though I can 100% agree with you, that they need new AAA IPs. They need something different than halo, gears, forza.

As I already told you GOTY= Quality, Zeitgeist. Is not about the awards per se.

IS NOT about what I want them to do.


Is:

What do you think Microsoft needs to do to become successful?​

A plain AAA game is not enough. MS NEEDS to capture the ZEITGEIST, the conversation as once they did with games like Halo/Gears.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Thankfully, Phil Spencer disagrees with you. I think the vast majority of gamers disagree with you. If you are happy with Xbox games then that is fine, but I don't think one can realistically look at Xbox the last 10 years and say their first party output doesn't need fundamental changes. And, again, that's what the acquisitions are for.

Phil conceded for this year. Not for an entire generation.

I prefer experiences like Elder Scrolls Morrowind. Open ended, exploration based, find treasure on your own with some clues in journal.

That's how games like Grounded, Sea of Thieves play.

I don't want them to make hand holding games.

That is their issue. You need new IPs. People get tired of your IPs, if you keep milking them off.

How many halo, forza, and gears are out there? Its too much.

MS needs new different breed of IPs.

For example, Sony made Horizon and Ghost of tsushima. That is 2 new brand IP, which they got by shelving their old IPs. MS needs to do the same.

We have been getting new ip galore though recently.

And a hell lot of creative stuff.

 

[Topher]

Phil conceded for this year. Not for an entire generation.

Phil Spencer has been saying this for a long time. Here he is in 2019:

“I think us having a strong first party at Xbox means that when I think about Xbox, I’m going to think about quality games.

“We have work to do there. We haven’t done our best work over the past few years with our first party output.”

“We made a conscious effort to invest in our first party,” he said. “Some of that is standing on stage and announcing the acquisition of studios, some of it is the hiring that we’re doing at the studios we already have.

“I know our fans want to see us do better and the teams are completely aligned behind that desire.”

Xbox needs to improve its first-party games output, says Spencer | VGC

“We have work to do”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

 

[Danjin44]

Isn't Xbox systems selling well? in that sense they already successful.

 

[Topher]

Isn't Xbox systems selling well? in that sense they already successful.

I'd say Xbox overall is a success just digging themselves out of the hole they found themselves in last gen.

 

[Chukhopops]

Because you can praise them, while criticizing their short coming. You cant just defend something, and ignore the bad part.

You are right. Fans should just happily take with MS feeds them, and not question them at all. Got it.

There is different between 1st party drop, and 3rd party. MS lacked 1st party for a long time. Their newest IP was Sea of theives. They need more work. They cant even do a simple lockdown games like ff7 or forspoken,

People need new fresh IP, and more consistant. Until MS/Xbox gets that right, people would be upset.

I disagree this is what they need, that’s all. Again, I respect your opinion but it seems you think you hold some form of absolute truth - you don’t. You can be upset if that’s how you really feel.

Also lmao Forspoken.

 

[Danjin44]

I'd say Xbox overall is a success just digging themselves out of the hole they found themselves in last gen.

I also think they shouldn't try to copy what Sony and Nintendo does and instead Microsoft should try to do what made them famous in the first place.....online gaming.

 

[Oof85]

"Successful" is the wrong word. They make billions every year.

To deliver:

They need AAA New IP
More AAA games, consistently
Increase the quality of their AAA games.

REAL AAA games, not shit like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown. One of those is an AA game the other is garbage.

Nah, strongly disagree.

More AAA games will just end up with MS having a type of game identity staple ala Sony, and they don't need that.

AAA means less risk almost certainly.

They need to learn from Nintendo and broaden their reach.

Someone said they have 25 studios?

That kind of workforce should be constantly making a range of titles, both new ips and established ips in AA/AAA scales, with more AA than AAA.

MS right now is rote. Halo/Forza/Horizon/Gears/Flight Simulator.

They need more things like Pentiment sized but in various genres.

Then you get excitement. Then you get eyes.

Then you win.

Imagine if Obsidian was the developer behind The Plucky Squire? And a bunch of wild and out there games?

 

[Handel]

They're already successful, except in the eyes of Sony fanboys. What they can do to have continued success is already in motion, they just need to stick the landing with the line-up of games coming out these next few years. Their genre diversity is already better than Sony first party, that some titles are smaller scale doesn't make them any less worthwhile except in the eyes of people who think AAA gaming is the end all be all(it's not, many of the best games each year are indie titles). They are lacking in iconic characters other than Master Chief(whose star is fading), not an easily solved problem since Banjo or Raz from Psychonauts are their two best existing candidates, and those two franchises likely won't have any new entries anytime soon, though whatever Double Fine comes out with next can bring a new icon to the fore.

 

[Heisenberg007]

It's very funny to think that they spent time making Bleeding Edge when those developers could have been helping get Hellblade 2 out the door. And you're right, given the expected scale of a 1st party developer, it really doesn't make sense to have their main development studios split their resources on multiple smaller projects concurrently while they are working on something massive at the same time.

Grounded and Pentiment are cool games, I'm glad they exist, but the Xbox doesn't need those games right now, they need Avowed, they need Outer Worlds 2, and they need the Fallout IP to be exploited.

Slowing down the development of big titles to create diverse small titles to fill out Gamepass when the console already has an identity / marketing problem around blockbuster titles is just not intelligent in the slightest.

I agree. 100%.

Obsidian worked on The Outer Worlds DLC, Grounded, Pentiment, and Avowed. And Avowed is nowhere to be seen; no release date and not even a gameplay trailer. Had they not split their avg. sized studio into 4 teams, they'd probably have got Avowed out by now.

The need for creating more content (at a lower quality and faster clip) to keep the subscription content pipeline full is already damaging to the industry as well as gamers. Focus on quality over quantity and make blockbuster games that other companies can't do because they don't have the resources that you do.

 

[Heisenberg007]

How will this set them apart?

These games are already being made by other companies.

No other companies do that at a scale that's needed. Games like Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077 (if it weren't broken and was at advertised) are once-in-a-generation releases.

Sony is doing it, yes, but Sony is a 20x smaller company than Microsoft. Microsoft should be able to release those types of games (even better than Sony's, actually) multiple times a year.

Other companies, like EA, Ubisoft, SquareEnix etc. don't have the same production values that Sony has and Microsoft can potentially match with their financial resources.

 

[quest]

I agree. 100%.

Obsidian worked on The Outer Worlds DLC, Grounded, Pentiment, and Avowed. And Avowed is nowhere to be seen; no release date and not even a gameplay trailer. Had they not split their avg. sized studio into 4 teams, they'd probably have got Avowed out by now.

The need for creating more content (at a lower quality and faster clip) to keep the subscription content pipeline full is already damaging to the industry as well as gamers. Focus on quality over quantity and make blockbuster games that other companies can't do because they don't have the resources that you do.

I don’t think losing 14 out of 190 people who wanted a break from big RPGs slowed down avowed in tbe least. That huge 5 percent of the studio lol.

Grounded: A big experimental adventure made by Obsidian's tiniest team

Grounded game director Adam Brennecke has been working in the games industry for sixteen years. He's been a programmer,…

www.gamesindustry.biz

"he team working on Grounded is small -- only 14 people in a studio composed of around 190 people."

 

[adamsapple]

Isn't Xbox systems selling well? in that sense they already successful.

Yes, it's reportedly selling Series consoles faster than any Xbox before, and Game Pass has also become profitable to an extent as per Spencer. They're probably doing the best in a similar time after launch in Xbox history.

 

[DarkMage619]

Can you for once, please I beg you, acknowledge MS short coming?

Those suits neglected the brand, to a point, they allowed Xbox to have soo little studios until 2018.

Please criticize them. Dont wank for them.

I don't know why you would care what I think about MS. There are plenty of people here critical of the company all the time. If you must here me say something negative then I thought the X1 was not MS' best console effort.

Define success for them.

If you think it's releasing games like God of War, look elsewhere.

They are pretty successful with what they put out and have a fanbase.

Excellent point. I don't see a lot Xbox fans clamoring for a God of War game. If that's what you want the PlayStation does exist for those types of games. Just like you wouldn't buy a PlayStation for first party FPS titles.

 

[Danjin44]

Yes, it's reportedly selling Series consoles faster than any Xbox before, and Game Pass has also become profitable to an extent as per Spencer. They're probably doing the best in a similar time after launch in Xbox history.

That means they are successful, I might not be their target audience but they are doing something right.

 

[Topher]

I also think they shouldn't try to copy what Sony and Nintendo does and instead Microsoft should try to do what made them famous in the first place.....online gaming.

 

[Handel]

People ITT thinking that small teams getting to work on passion projects is slowing down the release of bigger titles

That these devs get to make these games is a boon to the diversity of the Xbox line-up, and also makes devs happy to work for/want to work for Microsoft. Stifling the creativity of your devs isn't the answer, making them crunch on big AAA games all the time is how you have them quitting to go elsewhere/leaving the industry. Grounded is a big success despite the small workforce, and Pentiment has gotten great reviews. If these armchair analysts ran game companies we'd have never gotten titles like Ico, which didn't sell much but has had a huge impact in shaping the last two decades of gaming.

 

[Danjin44]

I'm not saying they shouldn't do SP games at all but online gaming should be their main focus, especially the fact both Sony and Nintendo kind of lacking in that department.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Fire Phil

Hire J Allard and Peter Moore

 

[semiconscious]

Microsoft net worth as of November 14, 2022 is $1842.07B...

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MSFT/microsoft/net-worth

if microsoft isn't already pretty damn successful, who in the hell is?...

 

[Hoppa]

They went all in on Gamepass and it paid off. Imagine the last two years without Xbox having Gamepass

Obviously their output needs to be consistent and better. If that means new first party games won’t be on Gamepass day one then I’m for ot

 

[MAX PAYMENT]

Microsoft isn't successful?

 

[sinnergy]

Microsoft isn't successful?

Have you ever heard about Windows of Xbox … I don’t ..

 

[Heisenberg007]

I don’t think losing 14 out of 190 people who wanted a break from big RPGs slowed down avowed in tbe least. That huge 5 percent of the studio lol.

Grounded: A big experimental adventure made by Obsidian's tiniest team

Grounded game director Adam Brennecke has been working in the games industry for sixteen years. He's been a programmer,…

www.gamesindustry.biz

"he team working on Grounded is small -- only 14 people in a studio composed of around 190 people."

14 people for Grounded, yes, but then how many people have been or have worked on The Outer Worlds DLC, The Outer Worlds 2, and Pentiment?

Add all of that, and you'll end up with at least 30% to 50% of the studio's workforce. In other words, they could have doubled Avowed's dev team and reduce the development and release time by half.

 

[Helghan]

More, strong IP’s. I think a lot of people exaggerate when it comes to first party IP’s of Microsoft, but there should just be more.

Halo Infinite was great imo, but this year there just wasn’t enough of that level of quality. If 2023 only delivers starfield and redfall that would be a disappointment.

 

[quest]

14 people for Grounded, yes, but then how many people have been or have worked on The Outer Worlds DLC, The Outer Worlds 2, and Pentiment?

Add all of that, and you'll end up with at least 30% to 50% of the studio's workforce. In other words, they could have doubled Avowed's dev team and reduce the development and release time by half.

Pentiment team huge 13 people. Outer worlds 2 is in pre production so not many are on that. Outer world dlc really im sure it was part of the publishing contract. So 27 out of 190 so 15% of staff to produce 2 games thats impressive and great management.

Pentiment Review (Xbox One) - XboxAddict.com

How do I even start to talk about Pentiment? After finishing the game at 2AM, I found myself not being able to sleep because I was thinking about what I had just experienced. Not only what I played and how I felt, but what I might have missed during my first playthrough. I say first because...

xboxaddict.com

Pentiment is a game made by a small team of 13 talented people from Obsidian Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Pentiment team huge 13 people. Outer worlds 2 is in pre production so not many are on that. Outer world dlc really im sure it was part of the publishing contract. So 27 out of 190 so 15% of staff to produce 2 games thats impressive and great management.

Pentiment Review (Xbox One) - XboxAddict.com

How do I even start to talk about Pentiment? After finishing the game at 2AM, I found myself not being able to sleep because I was thinking about what I had just experienced. Not only what I played and how I felt, but what I might have missed during my first playthrough. I say first because...

xboxaddict.com

Pentiment is a game made by a small team of 13 talented people from Obsidian Entertainment and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

The Outer Worlds 2 went into pre-production in 2019 and was already in a playable state ~15 months ago. So, of course, it had a lot of people involved if the game was already playable.

And if Outer Worlds DLC was a part of the publishing contract (fine), then did it make sense to greenlight these 4 other projects: Pentiment, Outer Worlds 2, Grounded, Outer Worlds next-gen version? On top of Avowed (5th project)

At the end of the day, an average-sized studio is working on 5 projects simultaneously, and that's not good because it's delaying the release of their main game: Avowed. Remember, Avowed was revealed in 2020, and 2 years later, we haven't seen anything else from it.

 

[THE DUCK]

Ya, thier mutibillion dollar gaming business that makes money needs to be "successful"?
Thread title is pure clickbait.

 

[yamaci17]

Release a 93+ metacritic high production purely narrative driven, no DLC no microtransaction game

JUST ONE.

 

[Menzies]

I think they've made some great strides with investments, which likely won't show dividends for years to come. They have improved relationships with partners in Japan, but more of a presence would be needed in my view. GamePass has changed the rules with business/economic decisions, where once starting a new team in Japan didn't have the projected sales to make sense, now may be justified and subsidized for the diverse content offering. It's also hard to believe that there is no passion to revisit a Banjo or Conker game at Rare, there's certainly passionate support from the fans.

They might also be able to reap some benefits with some more unified use of Unreal across the teams. The Matrix Awakens and Hellblade 2 definitely compete visually against the best. It also makes sense to be able to pinch talent when needed, and not have to reinvent the wheel with disparate tech all the time.

 

[Moses85]

Use their forgotten franchises

Banjo, Jet Force, Kameo, Conker

Or use franchises the right way.

Battle Toads is awful
KI is ok

 

[fermcr]

Wish I was as unsuccessful as Microsoft...

 

[Yoboman]

Buy every developer and publisher

 

[nikolino840]

AAA = The highest production values, big Scope, Bleeding Edge technology.

GOTY= Quality, zeitgeist-Generation defining. Etc...

And New IPs that could replace old ones.

Is hard making an aaa new IP...or you make a reboot or you use an existing character (marvel/dc/whatever)

 

[PeteBull]

release great games more consistently

One and done.

As an anecdote, i follow niche gaming podcast(in polish so not much point to link to it, but just incase https://www.youtube.com/@Forumogadka) its of great quality but its done by 3 ppl who started playing consoles in x360 generation and they are totall xboxts with many stupid takes when it comes to console war content.

My point is, even those guys, went and bought(some physical, some digital) GoW Ragnarok for ps5 despite before taking oaths of not paying 70$(its over 80euro in poland, so for u, americans think of how game would cost u 350-400$, from our polish perspective), ofc they complained that game isnt looking better than their memory of back then playing GoW 2018 and pointed out all kinds of flaws, still it will be their 2nd best of the year game(keep in mind their are total xbots, so elden ring had to win)

What im saying- if microsoft wants to get bigger audience/make more splash, they gotta have something comparable to GoW:Ragnarok, true exclusive, at least timed, so not on pc, not on gamepass that ppl can pay 1 buck for, finish the game and never look back- from my pov its the only way.

 

[Jet Set Willy]

I feel that the Xbox Series X isn't that memorable compared to the Xbox 360. Xbox 360 gave me too many good memories, but the Xbox Series X isn't giving me those memories, maybe I'm just getting older, but I don't get that same excitement I would generally have when I get a new console.

360 was truly a golden era of online innovation on console though. I got one at launch, and XBLA was just crazy - games like Geometry Wars, Mutant Storm Reloaded and Zuma on there day one. We hadn't seen games like that on console for a long time at that time, it was refreshing to play games from independent developers on console - and be able to download them and for a cheap price. Especially for someone like me who grew up on games in the 80s, entire genres were missing from console catalogues at that time because of the obsession with 3D gameplay. Downloadable games brought those genres back, and then some.

Then you had online leaderboards - which was transformative for a game like Geometry Wars. Likewise with Achievements and comparing them with your mates, along with your gamerscore. DLC seemed novel and exciting at the time. Innovation like 1 vs 100. Getting a new dashboard!

The thing is, all that stuff is just standard these days, and it feels like everything has already been done in that space, that could be done.

 

[Jennings]

They are successful. Maybe a better question for you might be "What can Microsoft do to please Levijl1998?"

Still in business. Still a major player.

 

[Negotiator101]

How does aTrillion dollar company become successful?

 

[Negotiator101]

How will this set them apart?

These games are already being made by other companies.

Pretty sure I've played all them so they've already been made seriously though we know what's coming next year, Xbox is already successful, this thread is nonsense.