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

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Salty Hippo

Member
I mean, it's kind of baffling isn't it? When you compare Xbox One's upcoming exclusive games with PS4's offerings it's just a complete slaughter in favor of the PS4 no matter how you look at it. Quantity, quality, variety. Unless you have a very peculiar taste that favors Xbox IPs in spite of everything Sony offers, or only care about online and/or multiplats, I don't think this is remotely disputable.

How can Microsoft be trailing so far behind worldwide and at the same time be so risk averse and have so little announced? How can they close down several studios, force most of the internal teams left to work on only one IP forever and NOT have a torrential stream of second-party deals to compensate for this? Have they gone suddently wary about annoucing things too early and are holding a bunch of stuff back? Or do they just have no faith their audience will buy anything other than their evergreen IPs and Call of Duty? Does Phil Spencer think potential new buyers are stupid and won't compare his box to the plethora of exclusive content the competition has been announcing? I don't fucking get it. And I don't get how there are people who believe this guy is some kind of knight in shining armor that is saving Xbox from doom. I think it's quite the opposite.

Two years ago your Lord and Savior said on a podcast (I think it was IGN's Unlocked but I don't remember exactly) that MS would start to focus on first-party and IPs that they own, and that he admires Nintendo's first-party and aspires to get to that same level. Two years later he couldn't possibly be farther from that goal. All that Xbox players have to look forward right now is a pirate MMO/Destiny clone, yet another survival zombie game, an RTS that fatigues the Halo brand even more, Crackdown that for all we know could be a multiplayer-only game and Scalebound. Yes, there are smaller games like Cuphead, there are some ports like Voodoo Vince and Phantom Dust, but come on, that's nowhere nearly enough to compete. How can you expand your brand appeal and audience by if you refuse to entice new players with a big, diverse portfolio of console exclusives to achieve that purpose?

I feel that Microsoft has completely given up on that idea and is just banking on Scorpio to have the best multiplats and therefore convince all the gamers who play mostly cookie cutter AAA games from big third-party publishers to buy all those games on their platform instead of PS4/Pro. That has to be it, right? Is there any other explanation? Is there maybe actually nothing wrong with Microsoft's approach and Sony is just going out of their way BLEEDING money to make all the games they have announced in the past couple of E3s and PSXs happen?

For the record, this is not the perspective of a Sony fanboy, I currently don't even own a PS4 and have zero love for either of these corporations. Let's please try to have a healthy discussion about this with the fanboy bullshit kept to a pleasant minimum.
 
QEFy5C2.jpg
 

Trojan

Member
MS had a perfect opportunity to capitalize on Sony's first party gaps the last 3 years of this console cycle, but they didn't plant the right seeds. Sony's first party is starting to pick up steam now and MS is going to pay the price.
 
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.
 
I think you're assuming a bit too much about how Microsoft feels.

They are severely lacking in talent whereas Sony seems stacked with it, and they have the market advantage.

A lot of people look at RoTTR and see going exclusive on Xbox as a death knell it seems.

I believe Microsoft is aiming to do what even Steam couldn't - offer a unified gaming environment, store, and gaming system (along with their PC and phone offerings). Until then (and Scorpio) they probably aren't going to go hard on the games.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Because last generation they proved if you get the big 3rd parties in your bed it doesn't really matter what IP diversity does.

Issue this generation is Sony got them. Remember the first few years of the PS4 almost solely relying on 3rd parties?

Sony have always had more IP diversity than MS, its just not the most important thing in this industry. Bedding EA and Activision is. The FIFAs and CODs are what ship mass console sales. Heck we will be lucky to see something like TLG ship 1.5~2 million.

If you enjoy your shooters, sports games and big releases Xbox has always been great. As I said above this generation just cut them a bit due to the farce of a launch of the XB1 and the big publishers bedding with Sony.
 

Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
?????

I wouldn't worry nothing can be as bad as Sony's 2015 offerings and they did ok. Last year they had almost nothing exclusive at the holiday season.
 

jbug617

Banned
As of right now for next year:
Halo Wars 2 (February)
Scalebound
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown
State of Decay 2

You know there will be a new Gears, Halo and Forza also. Who knows what else they are doing.
 
I feel like it's not even about fanboyism at this point. I play barely any AAA blockbusters, but I still loved the 360 because it had a large variety of games and genres for all tastes. The Xbox One has failed in that regard, and that's why everyone is on PS4 now. Even people who only play the safe games can still benefit from the variety the PS4 has; other people who live in the household would have easy access to them. Events like the Summer of Arcade were a great way to promote the smaller downloadable games while also giving hardcore gamers something to play between the heavy hitters, but they seem to have stopped doing that too.

Many of the titles Sony announced at PSX probably won't sell that well, but they need to exist anyway. AAA games take more time and money to produce than ever before, and the smaller stuff is what keeps people in the ecosystem. I feel that's the biggest thing that Microsoft forgot compared to what they had with the 360 last gen.
 

10k

Banned
Video games take time to make. I'm sure they'd love a Scalebound or blockbuster new IP to be ready every holiday season. Microsoft did the smart thing by releasing their big guns in September (Forza) and October (Gears) away from the clutter of November.

For four months straight the Xbox One S, a soft reboot of the Xbox One brand, has been the highest selling game console. It's selling better. The Xbox Play Anywhere initiative works and is taking time to grow its stable of games.

Next year we will get Halo Wars 2, Scalebound and Crackdown 3 and I'm sure there's unannounced titles Microsoft has been holding on too. Phil isn't Mattrick. He doesn't show games coming out three years from now like they did in 2013. Wait for E3 2017 before panicking. You'll know there holiday lineup and pricing of Scorpio by then.
 
How quick do you think it takes to make a game? You point out a couple of times Phil said two years ago they planned to focus on more exclusives.
 

shanew21

Member
MS had a perfect opportunity to capitalize on Sony's first party gaps the last 3 years of this console cycle, but they didn't plant the right seeds. Sony's first party is starting to pick up steam now and MS is going to pay the price.
Gears and Forza were both fantastic this year. Dead Rising seems to be getting some good reviews too. I don't understand the hate.
 
Video games take time to make. I'm sure they'd love a Scalebound or blockbuster new IP to be ready every holiday season. Microsoft did the smart thing by releasing their big guns in September (Forza) and October (Gears) away from the clutter of November.

For four months straight the Xbox One S, a soft reboot of the Xbox One brand, has been the highest selling game console. It's selling better. The Xbox Play Anywhere initiative works and is taking time to grow its stable of games.

Next year we will get Halo Wars 2, Scalebound and Crackdown 3 and I'm sure there's unannounced titles Microsoft has been holding on too. Phil isn't Mattrick. He doesn't show games coming out three years from now like they did in 2013. Wait for E3 2017 before panicking. You'll know there holiday lineup and pricing of Scorpio by then.
Umm weren't these at e3 2014?
 

Chris1

Member
Halo wars 2, crackdown, scalebound, sea of thieves, state of decay 2, forza 7 and most likely 1 or 2 more big games announced at e3. Plus indies, small remasters and what not.

Looks good to me with tonnes of diversity... I dunno.
 

shingi70

Banned
Side Spencer said that we have gotten

Halo 5
Rare Replay
Gears Ultimate
Scream ride
State of decay year 1
Kalimba
Quantum Break
Recore
Gears 4
FORZA horizon 2
Ori and the blind forest
Happy Wars
Happy Dungeons


With on the horizon

Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3 (it does have a single player mode)
Scale bound
Halo Wars (do people get made at Mario golf)
Phantom Dust remaster
Voodoo Vince remaster
State of decay 2
Gigantic
Fable Fortune


Could be alot worse Op.
 

Chris1

Member
Umm weren't these at e3 2014?
To be fair phil literally just stepped into the job just before e3 2014. I doubt he had much say in what's shown. Plus with ntkrnl leaking everything I don't really see the point holding it back anyway.


I do think phil is done announcing games so far out and wants to focus on games people will be playing soon. This year's e3 is a prime example of that and I think e3 2017 will be too.
 

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
I don't know man, next year beside the Horizon, GOW nothing on Sony side seems interesting to me.

So for me next year is going to be mostly 3rd party awesomeness. Mass Effect, RDR2

and from MS Halo Wars 2, Crackdown.
 

gogojira

Member
You say you want a healthy discussion but your original message is riddled with sarcastic and smart ass remarks about Phil or huge assumptions like Sea of Thieves is a Destiny clone.

It was a huge task for Microsoft to unfuck so much of what they did going into this generation. It's got great third party support and I've always been a fan of Xbox Live so I'm pretty happy with my XB1. I've been playing the shit out of my PS4 lately and I do generally like what Sony's done this gen, but I don't feel like you're actually asking for reasonably discussion.
 

Blam

Member
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
 

Elandyll

Banned
MS continues to apply what used to work in the 360 era.
Capitalize on surefire fanbase franchises, more or less annualized, and for the rest rely on marketing/ temp exclusives with 3rd parties.

I too kinda think they missed an opportunity to spread their titles and challenge Sony outside of Q4, but with an in-house dev capacity so focused on specific franchises (and frankly quite a bit smaller than WWS in number of # of studios afaik), you can only do so much.

Sony also benefits from "natural" exclusives fromn Japan due to the small XB1 install base there and the relatively low interest of the XB fanbase in the west for said titles. I mean, 80-20% for FFXV apparently...

Now, we'll have to see what happens with delays, but.. yeah. In theory 2017 should be an insane year on PS4.

In theory.
 

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
The shoes were on the exact other feet last year. It's not a sprint, and honestly the long game has turned out to be a lot more even than I expected.

Nice flashback to fanboy vitriol, though. Takes me back. Good times. Innocent times.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Salty Hippo indeed.

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.

You don't think Sony has announcements for E3?
 

Radec

Member
?????

I wouldn't worry nothing can be as bad as Sony's 2015 offerings and they did ok. Last year they had almost nothing exclusive at the holiday season.

Well Sony was the market leader last year.. Third party games will still come to cater that chunk of the market.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Halo wars 2, crackdown, scalebound, sea of thieves, state of decay 2, forza 7 and most likely 1 or 2 more big games announced at e3. Plus indies, small remasters and what not.

Looks good to me with tonnes of diversity... I dunno.

Yep. I'm not freaking out wondering what games I'm gonna' play. *Shrug*

HW2 and Sea of Thieves are probably all I'm going to actually buy anyhow, as GWG has been taking care of a lot of my gaming time.
 

Humdinger

Member
I'd be bored silly if I were an Xbox-only gamer. Scalebound would be the only thing that held my interest. I think of MS as a company that caters to mainstream/casual American and UK gamers whose tastes are focused on AAA shooters, sports titles, and online multiplayer.

I think MS is banking on Scorpio's power being a real winner and reducing the importance of their relatively weak exclusive catalog. Maybe they are saving up a bunch of big surprise game announcements for this coming E3. They sure went limp last E3; maybe that was because they were holding things in reserve.
 
SYSTEM WWAARRZZZ! *Throws a chair*

Seriously, you declared such before Microsoft had a chance to give us an update on their lineup.

Just say what MS has in the pipeline that you know of isn't your tastes and move on.
 
As of right now for next year:
Halo Wars 2 (February)
Scalebound
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown
State of Decay 2

You know there will be a new Gears, Halo and Forza also. Who knows what else they are doing.

It's not an awful list, and I'd be willing to bet there will be a few big guns brewing for Scorpio launch.

It still sort of feels like Microsoft are having difficulty overcoming the "Halo Forza Gears!" mantra from the late 360 years. I thought that was illconceived at the time and would lead to this sort of situation. The first few years of the 360 were bursting with great exclusives, but they couldn't (or more correctly, decided not to!) keep up the momentum.

In fairness, though, if there was a change in approach around 2013 it would only be showing the goods next year. These are the ghosts of past mistakes still haunting Microsoft.
 

Illucio

Banned
Microsoft is having early PS3 problems.

Bad start, not investing in studios, forcing to make things that will sell rather then allow creativity. Phil keeps playing the nice guy who is making not nice decisions and coming around saying "My hands are tied this is what I have to do."

Xbox needs to simply make a huge jump to compete with Steam and let their console days be behind them. Scorpio can't save them unless they pull a Nintendo DS and just make it the next generation console. But even then there chances are slim.
 

Ravi_elite

Banned
All the good games were already made last gen...there is no worthy game on either console atm in my eyes...the day the original Saints Row gets remastered..or Red Faction comes back then and only then will I be amazed
 

Betty

Banned
As of right now for next year:
Halo Wars 2 (February)
Scalebound
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown
State of Decay 2

You know there will be a new Gears, Halo and Forza also. Who knows what else they are doing.

Opinions and all but none of that interests me, except Forza but there's so many I feel like I'd get fed up of it quick if I followed it. Last one I bought was 2 anyway.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
All the good games were already made last gen...there is no worthy game on either console atm in my eyes...the day the original Saints Row gets remastered..or Red Faction comes back then and only then will I be amazed

I seriously cannot tell if this is a joke or not.
 

RoKKeR

Member
You say you want a healthy discussion but your original message is riddled with sarcastic and smart ass remarks about Phil or huge assumptions like Sea of Thieves is a Destiny clone isn't.

It was a huge task for Microsoft to unfuck so much of what they did going into this generation. It's got great third party support and I've always been a fan of Xbox Live so I'm pretty happy with my XB1. I've been playing the shit out of my PS4 lately and I do generally like what Sony's done this gen, but I don't feel like you're actually asking for reasonably discussion.
Was going to type out my thoughts but it would have ended up looking a lot like this.
 

jbug617

Banned
It's not an awful list, and I'd be willing to bet there will be a few big guns brewing for Scorpio launch.

It still sort of feels like Microsoft are having difficulty overcoming the "Halo Forza Gears!" mantra from the late 360 years. I thought that was illconceived at the time and would lead to this sort of situation. The first few years of the 360 were bursting with great exclusives, but they couldn't (or more correctly, decided not to!) keep up the momentum.

In fairness, though, if there was a change in approach around 2013 it would only be showing the goods next year. These are the ghosts of past mistakes still haunting Microsoft.

You can see MS is trying with new IP but it's not working out for them so far.

Yr 1:
Ryse

Yr 2:
Sunset Overdrive

Yr 3:
Quantum Break
Recore
 

Warablo

Member
They don't want to "bleed money" like Sony.

They would rather stay with their go to franchise's that guarantee them a certain profit. Instead of building a new studio and risking a new IP/studio costs that could end up losing money or barely breaking even. They figure its just too much work and risk.

So they stick to 2nd party/3rd party deals. While continuing with their franchises they feel comfortable making.

I wish they would show more effort in this area because Microsoft does have the money, but we have no idea how much "Xbox" has. They could have the most diverse studios if Microsoft/Xbox allowed/choose to.
 

Chris1

Member
You can see MS is trying with new IP but it's not working out for them so far.

Yr 1:
Ryse

Yr 2:
Sunset Overdrive

Yr 3:
Quantum Break
Recore
year 4 has sea of thieves and Scalebound too. Plus year 2 had ori.

Ms has been trying a lot this gen with new ips. They just haven't had any luck other either critical or sales wise other than ori.
 

daTRUballin

Member
This is why you're one of my favorite posters here on GAF, OP. You always tell it like it is. :p

In fact, I made a similar thread a few weeks ago but instead pertaining to Rare's IPs. Phil Spencer and crew NEED to revive some of these IPs. This would really help the Xbox One have a better and more diverse lineup and it would also bring back a lot of goodwill from gamers (something that they have lost during the Kinect years and during the whole Xbox One launch fiasco). Phil has been promising for the last couple of years that Rare and their plethora of IPs would be better utilized on the Xbox One, but so far, this hasn't come to much at all.

They bought a famous and renowned developer for almost half a billion dollars and have owned them for the last 15 years and done basically nothing with them. I remember finally thinking that with Spencer behind the helm we would see a true revival of both Rare and their IPs finally. But what do we get? Putting Conker in Project Spark and then putting him in that Young Conker Hololens POS? Yeah, nice usage of the IP there. The only positive things to come out so far are Sea of Thieves and Killer Instinct, but that's not saying much. Rare Replay was also a plus I guess, but come on.

EDIT: Not to mention the fact that Lionhead was shut down earlier this year has me scared for MS's other first parties. It definitely doesn't spark a lot of confidence in me that Phil has a long term plan for Rare and other studios.
 

DocSeuss

Member
Salty Hippo indeed.



You don't think Sony has announcements for E3?

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).

Microsoft has recently employed a habit of only showing stuff that's coming out in the near future. Sony will be like "aww yeah, this thing's coming out in three years, get hype!" and Microsoft has gotten increasingly good at only showing stuff they've got release dates for. It's stuff that's been locked in. There's still some holdovers from Mattrick's era (Crackdown 3, Scalebound), but he's not running the show now. I think Rare's Sea of Thieves is the only major game announced this year that Microsoft doesn't have dated? Might have that wrong.

Where we're at right now... Sony basically has nothing, right? Like, nothing at their E3 showing came this year with the exception of The Last Guardian, if I remember right. We've got... what on the horizon, with a firm release date, other than, y'know, Horizon?

I think Microsoft, right now, has an issue with generating player excitement for their games. They've been really good about providing the better console experience, especially with 360 compatibility, better monthly games, and so forth, but their library needs to move beyond the old standbys (Halo, Gears, Forza) and start pushing some new AAA surprises. Something to compete with Assassin's Creed would be the right move.

This is why you're one of my favorite posters here on GAF, OP. You always tell it like it is. :p

In fact, I made a similar thread a few weeks ago but instead pertaining to Rare's IPs. Phil Spencer and crew NEED to revive some of these IPs. This would really help the Xbox One have a better and more diverse lineup and it would also bring back a lot of goodwill from gamers (something that they have lost during the Kinect years and during the whole Xbox One launch fiasco). Phil has been promising for the last couple of years that Rare and their plethora of IPs would be better utilized on the Xbox One, but so far, this hasn't come to much at all.

They bought a famous and renowned developer for almost half a billion dollars and have owned them for the last 15 years and done basically nothing with them. I remember finally thinking that with Spencer behind the helm we would see a true revival of both Rare and their IPs finally. But what do we get? Putting Conker in Project Spark and then putting him in that Young Conker Hololens POS? Yeah, nice usage of the IP there. The only positive things to come out so far are Sea of Thieves and Killer Instinct, but that's not saying much. Rare Replay was also a plus I guess, but come on.

Rare never made a game better than the Viva Pinata games.
 
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