Vox Machina
Banned
Yes. Rare is a successful developer, working on the IP they want to work on, and growing, at that.
I'm still confused whether your concern is with IPs or the actual developer.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
[Windows Central] Xbox's biggest crisis right now isn't games. It's hardware.
- Thread starter Thick Thighs Save Lives
- Start date
- Opinion Business Analysis
Yes. Rare is a successful developer, working on the IP they want to work on, and growing, at that.
I'm still confused whether your concern is with IPs or the actual developer.
Mr.Phoenix
Member
And what they don't get... if you cant manage 5 studios... how are we supposed to trust you can manage 20?
Punished Miku
Gold Member
Is everything okay at home?
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
They've been owned by MS for now over 15 years and they have output 1 successful product.
Meanwhile Insomniac being owned by Sony for 4 years is about to put it their 3rd game since being owned by Sony...
Please continue to embarass yourself by arguing that Rare has flourished under MS.
ChorizoPicozo
Member
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Yah and it only costed Rare their premier status in the industry as one of the top, biggest, standard-setting studios into "just another developer" who bled away virtually all of their nostalgic goodwill.
A process initiated under Phil Spencer, no less.
Except if your that dumb fuck Crapgamer than 1% Is considered fucking excellent LMAO
1% Xbox growth would be like 1000000% growth for his Youtube channel, so of course it's great
Evil Calvin
Afraid of Boobs
No game has fully tapped the power of either console. No need for 'pro' versions, but if I were MS, I would phase out the Series S. It took 8+ or so years for older consoles to have games that truly tapped into the power. This generation there has been half a dozen (if that) games total that even use 75% of the power (if that). Certainly nothing close.
Red5
Member
I think they'll wait and see if ABK/Bethesda acquisitions will turn things around before doing anything like that. Revenue from Xbox consoles is more profitable than selling through other platforms.
Money talks sweetheart, Sea of Thieves is raking in cash, imagine thinking that making a product pulling in millions of $$$ with millions of subs is not flourishing, please do everyone a favor and never ever run a business.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
3 years in...he's having a breakdown.
Last edited:
Arumat
Banned
Not really... I get finger banged by some strange man
Red5
Member
As someone who played and loved Conker and Banjo sure, but bottom line what matters is the bottom line and any studio would trade away "nostalgic goodwill" for a golden goose GAAS title like Sea of Thieves.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I’d say it’s mostly shitty, hands off management, and some games are suffering for it.
Then there’s a lack of big blockbuster releases.
Then there’s a lack of big blockbuster releases.
I think Starfield will do better than most people seem to give it credit for and Bethesda will be fine.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
When I bring stuff like this up, I sound like a Sony fanboy. I certainly prefer Sony because they have constantly delivered exclusives for me to enjoy on their platform. They know how to get the most out of their studios and know how to get 2-3 big exclusives per year. Whether you like those games are not,
Xbox has not. It has been a CONSTANT pattern of mismanagement with them. You hear constant stories about delays, mismanagement, and it's getting tiring. The Coalition thrived because in one rare moment, they hired the right person to run that studio, Rodd Fergusson. MS should be BEGGING him to come in and replace Matt Booty to oversea MS first party studios. Some of those former Sony Execs (not named Phil Harrison) should be targetted hires by MS. I will never understand how Matt Booty has been able to keep his job. It's funny how I had several posters defending Rare. How can a studio that has produced 1 hit in 15 years be considered a success? Not to mention Perfect Dark being in development hell.
For the record, I want MS to be successful. I want Starfield to be good. I want MS to properly leverage the IPs (Doom, Fallout, Dishonored, Hexen, Quake) that they now own. Sony and Nintendo NEED the competition. Until MS proves otherwise, I will maintain the belief that all these studios they acquire are far more likely to be run into the ground or outright disappear than thrive. No amount of fanboying or blowing sunshine up my ass will change my view of that. Great games will. If Starfield is good, I hope it has the sells figures it deserves,
Everyone says that studios need time and resources. I agree, but I think in MS case, that's part of the problem. They need to have smaller budgets and shorter development cycles.
Neo_game
Member
Why can't Microsoft make Xbox revision like Sony keeps doing ? There is already 6nm PS5 and now disc less version, PS5 Pro and 5nm PS5 Slim rumor also recently. Why there is no such rumor going on with the Xbox ? Microsoft are happy to buy a 70billion $ company but cannot hire guys to make Xbox revision ? 
Last edited:
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
You are welcome to think that and I hope that is true, but what has MS done that gives you faith that will happen?
Vox Machina
Banned
This would be a horrible decision for Xbox. Short-term revenue gains in exchange for the long-term loss of hitching their horse to third-party consoles that they don't control.
Bernoulli
M2 slut
They got the new narrative to push
These are the same people that were saying that sony is anticonsumer for not releasing a cheap console
And that the Series S is more powerful than the PS5 thanks to all the RDNA 2 stuff
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
SoT is not raking in "millions of $$$ with millions of subs". You think those 20 million players are concurrent-cumulative? They aren't. The game usually has daily concurrent averages of 15K on Steam, chances are many of that 15K are the same players on for several hours, and play daily. The 20 million figure MS gave were for total login counts, but they don't differentiate between unique players, or the same person logging in multiple times over the course of a day, a week, a month etc.
This is a big reason why MAU is a generally garbage metric unless actual financial numbers are provided. Something Sony does with PS+ subscriptions. Something Microsoft does not, with any of their games, or even Game Pass.
You are really overestimating the financial revenue power of Sea of Thieves, here.
Sure, the game will do decently well. I think it could do 3-4 million in its launch month. That's great, actually, when compared to most games on the market.
But some people are delusional thinking it's going to pull off Skyrim numbers. It can't get anywhere near that without PlayStation and Nintendo. With the game also being in Game Pass, means even less in terms of B2P sales. It's why I don't see it going much beyond 14 million in lifetime sales, and even that might depend on some lucky happenstances outside of Microsoft's control.
That said, yeah, Bethesda will be just fine.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Money does indeed talk. Selling 10M+ copies of those games in less than 4 years talks far more.
You guys are making this too easy. Please stop embarrasing yourself.
Vox Machina
Banned
Why do you think MSFT bought ActiBlizz? It was all a $75 billion dollar acquihire for Rod Fergusson!!
Bernoulli
M2 slut
Venom Snake
Member
It's okay dude, just do another poll on who should Microsoft buy next, for sure it'll solve the prob.. uh oh.
Last edited:
ChorizoPicozo
Member
more horrible than Xbox hardware console performance in the market?
3 failures in a row. There is no way a division would have been able to sustain itself for so long.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Fredrik
Member
As said there already the reason it’s not selling is because of lackluster software. So it’s completely false to say that hardware sales is the problem.
No system sellers = lackluster hardware sales.
I have all platforms and try the hardest to be unbiased and to me it’s extremely clear that Microsoft have a software output issue. I use the console because I get cheap games through Gamepass but as soon as there is a big game on Switch or PS5 I instantly drop the XSX.
No system sellers = lackluster hardware sales.
I have all platforms and try the hardest to be unbiased and to me it’s extremely clear that Microsoft have a software output issue. I use the console because I get cheap games through Gamepass but as soon as there is a big game on Switch or PS5 I instantly drop the XSX.
Robb
Gold Member
Nah, software is definitely the issue imo.
They had what looked to be a great start this gen, then they went and screwed up with Halo and couldn’t deliver it on launch day (despite every Xbox Series box having Master Chief on it as an advert).
They need to do something because their “hands off” approach is obviously not good.
They had what looked to be a great start this gen, then they went and screwed up with Halo and couldn’t deliver it on launch day (despite every Xbox Series box having Master Chief on it as an advert).
They need to do something because their “hands off” approach is obviously not good.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
So if there's no games.....and that's not the crisis...but the hardware is the crisis....
..so it's all in crisis?
OK, poor starfield.
..so it's all in crisis?
OK, poor starfield.
rofif
Can’t Git Gud
It's games. They killed Gears of war with bad 4 and terrible 5.
They killed Halo with Infinite... and they just don't make AAA games.
But as for the box itself. It is terribly ugly, black box that strangely collects fingerprints like there is no tomorrow. Not sure what's the deal with that.
If they at least released white version....
But I generally dislike the box form factor.
But box is one thing. Other, very important is lack of character of the console. It seems and looks (the ui, experience) like netflix designed it. every ui element is a box, it's all sterile, ads.
I miss blades, I even miss first NXE... but the last 360 dashboard and all dashboards on ONE after are tragic. It's so soulless.
The magic with early 360 was real. Right up to kinect year 1 or 2 until we realized they are nuts. Maybe up to 2012. But the first years? Gears, dead rising, lost planet jrpgs, mass effect, olivion. The console seemed very futuristic at the time. Wireless controller, fantastic white color and shape. I loved the 360. ps3 had class and serious tone at the time but 360 had that real fun tone. Not forced fun.
I don't know if they can recapture that.
Meanwhile, Sony lost some of their edge too. Feels a bit soft. But at least it still feels somewhat focused and UI looks nice. The box is dividing but I love the weird shape and plates. Great idea. The dualsense haptics and triggers? fantastic.
They killed Halo with Infinite... and they just don't make AAA games.
But as for the box itself. It is terribly ugly, black box that strangely collects fingerprints like there is no tomorrow. Not sure what's the deal with that.
If they at least released white version....
But I generally dislike the box form factor.
But box is one thing. Other, very important is lack of character of the console. It seems and looks (the ui, experience) like netflix designed it. every ui element is a box, it's all sterile, ads.
I miss blades, I even miss first NXE... but the last 360 dashboard and all dashboards on ONE after are tragic. It's so soulless.
The magic with early 360 was real. Right up to kinect year 1 or 2 until we realized they are nuts. Maybe up to 2012. But the first years? Gears, dead rising, lost planet jrpgs, mass effect, olivion. The console seemed very futuristic at the time. Wireless controller, fantastic white color and shape. I loved the 360. ps3 had class and serious tone at the time but 360 had that real fun tone. Not forced fun.
I don't know if they can recapture that.
Meanwhile, Sony lost some of their edge too. Feels a bit soft. But at least it still feels somewhat focused and UI looks nice. The box is dividing but I love the weird shape and plates. Great idea. The dualsense haptics and triggers? fantastic.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Please tell me this is a joke...
Let's take a look at exclusives the PS5 was released :
2020: The Last of Us II, Ghost of Tsushima, Demons Souls, Miles Morales
2021: Returnal, R&C Rift Apart, Death Stranding
2022: Horizon FOrbidden West, God of War Ragnorok, The Last of US remake (fair to put this on there?)
2023: Spiderman 2.
I fail to see how that is considered struggling and that list is by no means all inclusive. As it leaves off stuff like Deathloop, and Ghostwire Tokyo. 2023 having only 1 big exclusive is a little down year.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
This. Does anyone remember the expectations and Xbox's and Xbox's fans' tone and overflowing overconfidence before the start of the generation? Even Phil Spencer said to IGN that they have a plan for increasing the Xbox console market share.
Too bad almost all their strategies were wrong and were always going to backfire.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Yet, it worked out just fine for Sega....
skit_data
Member
Probably just reading a little too much into this stuff but...
Between this article and the removal of that video on Jason Ronald talking about Series S (I guess it could also just be removed temporarily for some reason) it's almost as if something is going on.
Maybe they plan on loosening on some requirements regarding parity between the two models versions or something.
Between this article and the removal of that video on Jason Ronald talking about Series S (I guess it could also just be removed temporarily for some reason) it's almost as if something is going on.
Maybe they plan on loosening on some requirements regarding parity between the two models versions or something.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Especially because they sell consoles at heavy losses, and then their userbase doesn't buy enough games for the whole thing to make a lot of financial sense.
Also, Phil's idea (leaked by emails) to shut down Xbox and pivot more towards mobile gaming wasn't a bad one. Xbox has gone nowhere despite 20 years. MS can make interesting AA games. They can excel at mobile gaming.
Red5
Member
Oh yeah developing a AAA game every few years, pouring in time, work, money and resources to develop the assets and hope the game is good and sell enough to recoup investment costs and start generating revenue is much better than maintaining an already released product, updating it, releasing content incrementally while it generates revenue via MTX or Subs.
Rare right now after finding out they're not "Premiere AAA developers" anymore
Again never run a business, you just suck at it.
Last edited:
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
That's a good point. I don't think they will take any such drastic step, because (1) it will be a PR nightmare and (2) they are about to launch a new Series S variant.
But this out-of-the-blue narrative from a known shill like Jez does come as a surprise and poses questions.
Maybe this is setting up the defense for PlayStation's new "slim" model and Pro version and why Xbox will not have a "pro" version. But this is too soon for that.
Bry0
Member
Why is this always brought up? Why would they care? They are both running Microsoft software.
PropellerEar
Member
Biggest problem for Xbox
Monkfish877
Member
I'm a playstation fan, but I'm desperate for xbox to make a serious come back and go toe to toe against sony like they did in the ps360 era. You can't have a situation where playstaion just completely dominates the home console space like they have done these past 2 gens. Look at the amount of anti consumer crap sony are pulling, overpriced games, overpriced peripherals, over emphasis on GAAS, nickle and diming the consumer base and so on. I wish xbox hadn't completely shit the bed these last two gens or else we would have had a much more healthier console space . There's no way sony would have made some of these decisions if they had microsoft breathing down their neck. I hope xbox makes a comeback but I'm not convinced about Phil Spencer at all, especially the way he has managed the xbox first party studios, the lack of successful new ips should be worrying to any xbox fan.
