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How can Microsoft look at their current upcoming lineup and feel content with it?

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Sydle

Member
I highly doubt the Xbox team is happy about the current circumstances, but they're not going to out-Sony Sony. That ship sailed back in like 2008 and then it capsized in 2013 and sank like a rock into an abyss.

If they want to upset the market they have to do something different in a big way that the competition can't or won't copy. They need to play to their biggest asset, Windows. If they opened up Xbox to play anything a Windows 10 PC plays then it closes the software breadth and depth gap and then some.

The bigger the install base of devices the more they win back third party development, the more consumers they get, and the more people likely to buy their flagship releases and take chances on new IP and niche games MS publishes. They have to get back big market share first with something that has global appeal and feels like a big consumer win that washes away all the dirt from 2013 for good.

I know the arguments against that strategy, namely the conflict of Windows Store with things like GOG and Steam, but the bigger picture is a larger Windows base of gamers that devs can't afford to ignore when choosing between Windows, Android, iOS, PlayStation, and/or Nintendo. A large user base that over time could become accustomed to the Windows Store for at least the exclusive MS made stuff. If MS made their store more competitive and user friendly, maybe over years the Windows Store could even be preferred for some folks for certain releases.

I doubt this is the road they take, but I know at this point they can't hope to outplay Sony on Sony's terms. Then they have Nintendo to worry about now who consolidated all their teams for Switch development, so they're going to have a ton of games for one device now.
 
You do know this is absolute bullshit right?
2016 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2015-releases
Sony - 74.4, Microsoft is not even in the list

2015 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2014-releases
Sony - 72.5, Microsoft 68.9

2014 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2013-releases
Sony - 72.3, Microsoft 72.1

2013 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2012-releases
Sony 72.3, Microsoft 73.0

2012 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2011-releases
Sony - 72.8, Microsoft 77.2

2011 - http://www.metacritic.com/feature/game-publisher-rankings-for-2010-releases
Sony - 70.9, Microsoft 73.4

So, Microsoft is on top 3 years, Sony is on top 3 years.
I mean, this is kinda pointless, but It's like you're stuck in 2012 or something, yikes.

Nah, we're living in a post-facts world now. Just look at DocSeuss' "Sony loves CG trailers!" comment, even though Sony hasn't done that for like a decade but Microsoft does it relatively frequently (Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Phantom Dust and ReCore just off the top of my head).

But anyway, the biggest problem from where I'm standing is that Microsoft just doesn't have the developers on hand to even come close to Sony's output (almost three times the number of games this year). They closed down Lionhead and Press Play, Bungie and Twisted Pixel went independent, they got in a squabble with CryTek over Ryse's rights, Remedy are off doing their own thing and Insomniac are back working with Sony. So who else are they going to work with that they aren't already? AAA developers don't exactly grow on trees these days.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
:D

Ok
But, you should see the fact that , players prefer the more powerful consoles now...Most of them dont care about games


Look XO and PS4...PS4 did not have good exc for a long time, but sold good...

XO had good exclusives but did not perform well...

Power is everyhing now...

What changed since last gen when the Wii was the best selling console, followed by the 360? PS3 was easily the most powerful. It was also the most expensive.

XB1 was $100 more than Ps4 and had terrible messaging. That is why PS4 outsold it.


The games I had in mind, which range from moderate disappointments to major turds:

- Killzone: Shadowfall
- Knack
- Driveclub
- Littlebigplanet 3
- The Order 1886 (I'm emphasizing this as being a particularly egregious turd)
- The Tomorrow Children
- No Man's Sky

Driveclub was total shit at launch and is now one of the best racing game packages this gen.

It's too bad it will never shake off that launch stigma. Few games can.
 
This.

The "Xbox only has Gears/Halo/Forza lol" and "Xbox has no diversity" comments are so silly.

.

But hasn't MS killed every new IP so far?

Quantum Break?
Sunset Overdrive?
Recore?

All more or less critically acclaimed titles. Yet MS seems to have no intention to give them a second chance. That's what's bothering me the most.

So, why should I be looking forward to all those new IPs MS has planned if I already know they have no future unless they become the next Halo, sales-wise?
 

daTRUballin

Member
Is Crash Bandicoot a new platformer? I mean, that's clearly what my post was in response to. They got that.

To be fair, my post wasn't meant to be in defense of the PS4 or anything like that. I haven't been following the lineups of both consoles thoroughly and I usually don't participate in console wars nonsense. It just kind of irks me that Rare Replay counts as platformers that the Xbox One has. I mean, sure, that's technically true and all. But where are the new Banjo games? The new Conker games, etc.? I don't think people are buying Xbones just to play old platformers from years ago. People have been clamoring for new iterations to these franchises for years, and it's evident that MS hasn't been listening.
 
I think they're saving their big hitters for Scorpio. I fully support that. I'm still highly interested in it. I just hope it's not just Halo/Forza/Gears. Something new and interesting please.
Nah, we're living in a post-facts world now. Just look at DocSeuss' "Sony loves CG trailers!" comment, even though Sony hasn't done that for like a decade but Microsoft does it relatively frequently (Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Phantom Dust and ReCore just off the top of my head).

But anyway, the biggest problem from where I'm standing is that Microsoft just doesn't have the developers on hand to even come close to Sony's output (almost three times the number of games this year). They closed down Lionhead and Press Play, Bungie and Twisted Pixel went independent, they got in a squabble with CryTek over Ryse's rights, Remedy are off doing their own thing and Insomniac are back working with Sony. So who else are they going to work with that they aren't already? AAA developers don't exactly grow on trees these days.

Thank you. This needed to be said. Both the first and second paragraph! Special thanks for calling out the BS of DocSeuss.
 
But hasn't MS killed every new IP so far?

Quantum Break?
Sunset Overdrive?
Recore?

All more or less critically acclaimed titles. Yet MS seems to have no intention to give them a second chance. That's what's bothering me the most.

So, why should I be looking forward to all those new IPs MS has planned if I already know they have no future unless they become the next Halo, sales-wise?

Yup, MS doesn't take the time or effort to cultivate new IP's. Uncharted didn't become the powerhouse it is with UC1. MS very much tends to be a one chance company and if your game isn't a hot seller they have no interest in speaking to you about it again. Sony is much more willing to give a company one, two, and maybe even three chances to make a real hit.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
I think they're saving their big hitters for Scorpio. I fully support that. I'm still highly interested in it. I just hope it's not just Halo/Forza/Gears. Something new and interesting please.

But deep inside you know it's just going to be Halo/Forza/Gears.

Yup, MS doesn't take the time or effort to cultivate new IP's. Uncharted didn't become the powerhouse it is with UC1. MS very much tends to be a one chance company and if your game isn't a hot seller they have no interest in speaking to you about it again. Sony is much more willing to give a company one, two, and maybe even three chances to make a real hit.

Sony nurtures a developer from Killzone: Shadow Fall to Horizon: Zero Dawn.

MS buys developers and squanders them on shit like Kinect and Avatars.
 

Leflus

Member
But hasn't MS killed every new IP so far?

Quantum Break?
Sunset Overdrive?
Recore?

All more or less critically acclaimed titles. Yet MS seems to have no intention to give them a second chance. That's what's bothering me the most.

So, why should I be looking forward to all those new IPs MS has planned if I already know they have no future unless they become the next Halo, sales-wise?
Oh yeah. I forgot that standalone games doesn't actually exist. I guess we can strike off Ori, Scalebound and Sea of Thieves as well.

You also forgot Crackdown 3, Killer Instinct S1-3 and State of Decay 2 btw, but I guess those games don't fit your narrative.

Also: Recore and Quantum Break came out this year. While I don't know if I would bet on those games recieving sequels, it's far too early to tell.
 

Novocaine

Member
Fair enough, but the way people present their opinions is in a factual way though ie Microsoft has had the better first party games this generation. To me that phrasing is not that of an opinion and after seeing it repeated as fact so mant times I need to look for the best way to compare the their output and aggegrate review scores is best measurement I can think of.

I show no pretense that I believe Sony's output is vastly superior to Microsoft's,but that is based more on the type of games I enjoy than the quality of the titles. But hey maybe that's my hang up in failing to properly interpret what people are trying to convey in these increasingly tedious duscussions.

The people that push their opinions as fact are fucking idiots, on both sides.
 
I don't think Microsoft is doomed, but I peel back OP's sarcasm and there are legitimate concerns. I've said this elsewhere, but there's a reason they cannot do events like PSX and E3 and TGS like Sony can. They just don't have the breadth of content and partnerships.

Having 4 first party studios, 3 of which dedicated to IP that have been around for over a decade isn't exactly a good look. Those 2nd party deals aren't going to last forever and you can already see them drying up. I'll be very surprised if we see sequels to Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive and ReCore again. It's just not a sustainabe model.

But then can you blame them? Their user base just doesn't seem to care. They've struggled to launch a successful new IP this generation, despite trying. Hopefully Scalebound and Sea of Thieves do the trick for them next year.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
To be fair, my post wasn't meant to be in defense of the PS4 or anything like that. I don't follow the lineups of both consoles thoroughly and I usually don't participate in console wars nonsense. It just kind of irks me that Rare Replay counts as platformers that the Xbox One has. I mean, sure, that's technically true and all. But where are the new Banjo games? The new Conker games, etc.? I don't think people are buying Xbones just to play old platformers from years ago. People have been clamoring for new iterations to these franchises for years, and MS evidently hasn't been listening.

I don't think you'll be able to pull a disagreement out of me.

They are squandering the Rare IP IMO. They started off great with Killer Instinct this gen; taking an existing IP people love and marrying it with the perfect developer. I have no idea how they haven't put 2 + 2 together and done the same thing with Kameo, Banjo Kazooie, Jetforce Gemini etc etc it almost makes too much sense. Either get Rare on it, or find another marriage and get things moving. They are sitting on a gameplay treasurechest for these types of games. They don't even require a massive budget.
 
But deep inside you know it's just going to be Halo/Forza/Gears.

Yes I know. :(

I'm still giving them the benefit of the doubt. As of right now, Sony has an order of magnitude more exclusives than MS. It's really great to see games from Japan finally seeing an upward trend in the west. And I hope more multinational developers come to rise as well. For that, I only see Sony making the push. I still see MS being a US/UK focused effort.
 
Two gens in a row they left early, first the market with OG then most 1st party with the 360 once Kinect focus ruined an amazing console. I don't see this changing with their lack of diverse titles now. I'm not sure what their point is anymore outside of MAUs. :(
 

RoKKeR

Member
I don't think Microsoft is doomed, but I peel back OP's sarcasm and there are legitimate concerns. I've said this elsewhere, but there's a reason they cannot do events like PSX and E3 and TGS like Sony can. They just don't have the breadth of content and partnerships.

Having 4 first party studios, 3 of which dedicated to IP that have been around for over a decade isn't exactly a good look. Those 2nd party deals aren't going to last forever and you can already see them drying up. I'll be very surprised if we see sequels to Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive and ReCore again. It's just not a sustainabe model.

But then can you blame them? Their user base just doesn't seem to care. They've struggled to launch a successful new IP this generation, despite trying. Hopefully Scalebound and Sea of Thieves do the trick for them next year.
Yep, this as well.
 
Sony, historically, shows CG content or unrepresentative footage (ahem, No Man's Sky) years in advance of what's actually going on. They repeat this time and time again. Or they do stuff like revealing stuff that isn't really theirs, but paid exclusive stuff (like the RE7 demo, which was a paid exclusive demo, for some reason).
Death Stranding being at both E3 and PSX was one of the worst recent examples of this.
I feel like Sony started this gen with the idea of only announcing games that were close to launch, but gave up on it after E3 2014.


I do think MS would do well to have a high budget, visually impressive, exclusive tentpole WRPG.

I just don't know who the hell would make it. I just don't think Obsidian has the art chops for it, but they would probably be the best option.

Yeah, they really need to fill the BioWare-shaped hole in their games. WRPGs were a big part of the Xbox and 360s lives with games like KotOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Fable. Casey Hudson even works for MS now (Mainly with Hololens, but he did say he'll work on other stuff).
 
They definitely need more diverse 1st party games, in new IPs, but there's not a single Sony game I'm interested in.


People are different, OP.

Get out of your bubble.
 

eastx

Member
I'm sure the Forza games have done well this gen, but you shouldn't use VGchartzzz as a source.

Sorry, I didn't notice it was them. Really hard to find actual numbers for DriveClub's launch. Just this UK release chart putting it at # 5 below Forza Horizon 2. UK is the biggest racing market AFAIK. And the reason Sony didn't report hard numbers is because the game was having some real issues at that time, which has to have affected launch sales.
 

daTRUballin

Member
I don't think you'll be able to pull a disagreement out of me.

They are squandering the Rare IP IMO. They started off great with Killer Instinct this gen; taking an existing IP people love and marrying it with the perfect developer. I have no idea how they haven't put 2 + 2 together and done the same thing with Kameo, Banjo Kazooie, Jetforce Gemini etc etc it almost makes too much sense. Either get Rare on it, or find another marriage and get things moving. They are sitting on a gameplay treasurechest for these types of games. They don't even require a massive budget.

Yeah, I don't have much to add here except to say I absolutely agree with pretty much everything you've said lol

They did start out strong with stuff like KI in the beginning, but now they seem to be sort of floundering around. When Spencer first became head of Xbox and started making promises, I believed we would finally see many of these older IPs return, but so far not much has come from that aside from dumb little fan service cameos. But to be fair, Phil has only been leading things for two years. I feel like it may be a bit early to judge him. There's still many potential things that fans and gamers have been asking for that could happen in the future, so not all hope is lost.
 

eastx

Member
They did start out strong with stuff like KI in the beginning, but now they seem to be sort of floundering around. When Spencer first became head of Xbox and started making promises, I believed we would finally see many of these older IPs return, but so far not much has come from that aside from dumb little fan service cameos. But to be fair, Phil has only been leading things for two years. I feel like it may be a bit early to judge him. There's still many potential things that fans and gamers have been asking for that could happen in the future, so not all hope is lost.

Yeah, give him time. A lot of projects Phil initially set in motion probably won't pay off for another year or two. And I really hope they let Rare start concurrently developing multiple titles. Sea of Thieves might be great, but of course we all want to see more capitalization of Rare IP.

Also, anyone who feels that way had better have bought Rare Reply to show consumer interest in Rare IPs!
 

eerik9000

Member
Microsoft has recently employed a habit of only showing stuff that's coming out in the near future.

I disagree.

Quantum Break - announced in May 2013, released in April 2016
Halo 5 - announced in June 2013, released in October 2015
Fable Legends - announced in August 2013, cancelled, studio shut down
Phantom Dust - announced in June 2014, cancelled
Scalebound - announced in June 2014, no release date
Crackdown 3 - announced in June 2014, no release date
Sea of Thieves - announced in June 2015, no release date

Oh, and all of them were, except Sea of Thieves, were announced with CG trailers.
 
It's the greatest games lineup in history though. /s

They had their chance and they blew it. Sony's first party has struggled in the first couple of years. They're back on their feet now.

No, it hasn't. They try new IP's just as they did in every other gen. Some of them hit, some of them don't. And they don't launch their all their games in the same window like Xbox does.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
No, it hasn't. They try new IP's just as they did in every other gen. Some of them hit, some of them don't. And they don't launch their all their games in the same window like Xbox does.

Tbf, the first year was pretty weak. But 2015 was good for Sony 1st Party.

I like that Sony doesn't load down on the holidays. I feel like putting all your big games out at once is just going to cannablize sales.

Besides, why compete with flagship 3rd party titles? February-May is a great time to release big games when no one else is.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Spencer is still working to clean up that trainwreck Don Mattrick left behind.

I still can't believe Xbox's fall from grace. 360s exclusives the first 2 years or so were amazing. Hope the brand can make a comeback one day.
 

eastx

Member
I disagree.

Quantum Break - announced in May 2013, released in April 2016
Halo 5 - announced in June 2013, released in October 2015
Fable Legends - announced in August 2013, cancelled, studio shut down
Phantom Dust - announced in June 2014, cancelled
Scalebound - announced in June 2014, no release date
Crackdown 3 - announced in June 2014, no release date
Sea of Thieves - announced in June 2015, no release date

Oh, and all of them were, except Sea of Thieves, were announced with CG trailers.

In both Quantum Break and Crackdown 3's case, they had a target release but pushed them back to make them bigger. I could be wrong, but I think PlayStation 4 exclusives tend to get pushed back as well. Also, the strategy of focusing on titles that are closer to release started in 2015.

OP can let is all know how those PS games turn out when he gets back from the unknown distant future.

Exactly.
 

HotHamBoy

Member
OP can let is all know how those PS games turn out when he gets back from the unknown distant future.

Well, we know how Persona 5 turns out...

Mid-Size Publisher Rankings, 2015 Releases:

4. Microsoft
- 10 Unique Games
- 11 Total Games
- 78.6 Average

Made less games, but they beat Sony here.

I'll take flawed but interesting over safe and derivitive.

Also, Metacritic is a dumb way to judge the quality of anything. People need to stop putting so much stock into it, good or bad.
 

Alex

Member
I just want State of Decay 2 to be as good as I hope it will be. First one was fantastic, so much potential with multiplayer on top of that
 
Sorry, I didn't notice it was them. Really hard to find actual numbers for DriveClub's launch. Just this UK release chart putting it at # 5 below Forza Horizon 2. UK is the biggest racing market AFAIK. And the reason Sony didn't report hard numbers is because the game was having some real issues at that time, which has to have affected launch sales.

Mainland Europe is also a large racing market where Xbox sales are terrible. We know DC has sold well more than 2M. But it also charted again in the UK over Black Friday. Aaron Greenberg in his acceptance speech at the Game Awards proudly announced that Forza was now the best selling racing franchise this gen. Assuming they're not counting Mario Kart (which they have to be) the next biggest seller is almost certainly DriveClub. The irony is that I doubt their total franchise sales would be much lower if Forza had only one or two releases this gen being iterated on and updated like DriveClub.
 
I agree with the op. As someone who owned multiple 360s, I don't see a reason for the xb1 to exist. As far as I'm concerned, it's been a waste of space. Microsoft keeps churning out the same tired exclusives while being completely risk averse. They really add nothing to industry and their presence would not be missed. Nintendo release exclusives that focus on gameplay first. Their games are challenging yet accessible. Sony seems to be interestep in pushing games with mature themes and discussions. They also offer fantastic variety as well. 3rd parties have the rpg, sports, and racing genres on lockdown.

Each company excels at something and as far as I'm concerned, Microsoft excels at nothing. EA and Activision makes the best fps games. Sony makes the best tps games. Codemasters and co make the best racing games. Mortal combat and street fighter are the best fighting games. Rockstar, CD projekt, ea, and Ubisoft have open world games on lock down. What does Microsoft excel at? How are they pushing the industry forward? The answer is that they are not. They need to step up their game or bow out. Right now, they are just a waste of space.
When "I" think "waste of space", its about that ^ post. Smh.
 

Shabad

Member
I dont know everything that is planned in the future, I dont even know what will make 2017 and what won't. But one thing's sure, the next 6 month will be pretty one-sided : PS4 will be getting Horizon, Nioh, Persona 5, Nier Automata, and Gravity Rush 2. Plus all the other stuff I am not planning on getting such as KH2.8, Yakuza, MLB... Xbox One will be getting Halo Wars 2.

This emphasizes everything I find wrong with Microsoft exclusive offerings : lack of Japanese support, absurd focus on the Fall trimester, and strong reliance on overused franchises. We will see how the rest of the year unfold, we will probably get Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, and Forza 7 on Xbox. I have seriously no idea what will make 2017 on PS4 among GT7, Detroit, Spiderman, God of War, Days Gone, Dreams, Wild, Ace Combat, Everybody's Golf, Ni No Kuni 2, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy Remake Part I... But you see my point.

If you aren't perfectly in phase with Microsoft exclusives (and I personally dont like Driving games and generally despise multiplayer focused games ), their planning can get a bit... dry.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Come on now you seriously can't be saying this after sony just used their reveals all on PSX, Microsoft has E3 and they just don't need to show all this before the christmas break. That's sony's marketing plan not Microsoft's.

Now excuse me imma bounce.

RYrq1xF.gif

Man... that animation always gets to me... it looks like he is speeding up in mid air at the end as if he is activating a hidden jet engine :p.
 
As someone who has said for years that Microsoft had the best exclusives, I can now honestly say that title has shifted to Sony. That is without considering VR. When you add in VR games it isn't even close.

Man... that animation always gets to me... it looks like he is speeding up in mid air at the end as if he is activating a hidden jet engine :p.
I think at the end he shoots his webbing and pulls himself towards the window.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
That's quite easy, they look into their horrible line-up, see that there is no Banjo-Threeie in it and that Yoshi still owns an Xbone and laugh hysterically.
 

amardilo

Member
I think there is a lack of quantity but in terms of quality and verity they are OK.

This year we got:
Dead Rising 4
Forza Horizon 3
Gears of War 4
Quantum Break
ReCore

We also got updates to Killer Instinct and Ori and the Blind Forest.

Hopefully next year we get:
Crackdown 3
Halo Wars 2
Phantom Dust
Sea of Thieves
Scalebound
State of Decay 2

MS will also probably release Forza MotorSport 7.


I think overall that is a good mix of games but I really wish MS would release more big budget games over the course of the year.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
No, Rare never made a better game than Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, in their entire existence. Including Conker.
Considering Banjo-Kazooie is the best game any western developer has ever made, this certainly is wrong.
 

ekim

Member
MS has released its big hitters just recently. (GoW4, FH3)
I wouldn't be too concerned until next E3, maybe even earlier if they plan to properly reveal Scorpio on a dedicated event.
 
1. Sony's first few years of this gen have been rather pathetic in terms of exclusives. You could have wrote the same argument last December with the roles reversed, where MS had a huge stable of exclusives coming and Sony had basically nothing.

2. MS generally doesn't announce games ridiculously far in advance like Sony. Look at the exclusives they have announced recently. How many have a release date, one? Horizon.... The rest like Spiderman, days gone, god of war- they don't even have a release window. Personally I've grown pretty tired of having games announced that don't release for over Year.
 

Floody

Member
I just wish they'd let their studios do something different (it doesn't have to be permanent thing, but a 1 off try at something different would be nice), seems they only really have 3rd party try new things. It's a shame too as they have some really talented studios, but I couldn't careless about Forza, Gears or Halo anymore. Sony, Nintend and pretty much every major publisher has this problem too, but I can at least remember most of them having at least one of their major studios try something new, really can't with MS.
 
Kind of funny how the board jumps back and forth over this every 3-6 mo. MS has a soft Q1 and everyone panics, Sony has a soft Q3 and everyone panics, Sony announces a dozen games at a PS-only conference and suddenly MS in trouble, etc.

MS will announce more AAA games than just Sea of Thieves, Forza, Scalebound, and Crackdown for 2017. Take a deep breath, 2016 isn't ever over yet.
 

Leflus

Member
I just wish they'd let their studios do something different (it doesn't have to be permanent, but a 1 off try at something different would be nice), seems they only really have 3rd party try new things. It's a shame too as they have some really talented studios, but I couldn't careless about Forza, Gears or Halo anymore. Sony, Nintend and pretty much every major publisher has this problem too, but I can at least remember most of them having at least one of their major studios try something new, really can't with MS.
Rare with Sea of Thieves.

Also... 343 Industries and The Coalition are still fairly new studios. You never know, they might branch out after their third Halo and Gears games.
 
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