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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

F

FinaruDensetsu

Member
Ugh why does Phil always respond to people like Timdog so much? Does he really not know who and what these people are like?

Like it's not even like these guys are hiding the nasty shit they do and say. Why legitimize these guys?
 
digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
Steverulez said:
I for one am hyped about Mojang's contribution to Xbox including the multiplatform Minecraft. I mean, I dont doubt their place or their significant contribution to the bottom line, but seriously.
Click to expand...

I have been reading your tweets, I know you are a Xbox fan, you say a lot of good stuff, I definitely share your opinions.
 
D

dancrane212

Member
Chris1 said:
Lmao

Mojang doesn't even make games for Xbox. Unless hes hinting at them working on something other than Minecraft updates.... Probably not
Click to expand...

They did Cobalt last year on PC, 360 and XB1. Not a huge a release but still something other than Minecraft.

...Wait Mojang just published it. Nevermind.
 
Kssio_Aug

Kssio_Aug

Member
FelipeMGM said:
Yes, Activision is the publisher of the N Sane Trilogy

but he is talking about the OG games which Sony does have some ownership and which the N Sane Trilogy is using as a framework. Other than moneyhats, this could be the reason for it to be exclusive. The legals behind this could also be the reason why they havent said outright its exclusive as well
Click to expand...

AHH, okay, I misunderstood his question. But that's a good point, I didn't think about it.
 
digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
Samurai G0SU said:
he just replies to timdog 95% of the time though.

https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/819285599261597696

@XboxP3 switching fronts , how is progress coming along with Scorpio? Are you happy with what you are seeing ? ♏♏♏♏

@BeastFireTimdog Absolutely, great that our 1st party teams are getting engines up and tuned, great progress across studios, platform and hw

so 1st party folks already are getting engines up and tuned for Scorpio. so rumor of dev kits out in feb/march might hold some truth then?

--- edit

Fast, someone tweet him super intelligent and that reflects the question of all of GAF.
Click to expand...

I be polite but don't get a response, busy fella I get it. The timdog guy strikes me of a bit of a zealot which I don't think is a positive if you want to hear community feelings.
 
Kssio_Aug

Kssio_Aug

Member
FelipeMGM said:
Thefuck is Phil doing with all these snarky and nonsensical responses to valid concerns of his fanbase
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Well, public responses need to be always positive. He can't just say "holly shit no... things are ugly as fuck and I'm about to explode in fury with some people here!" even if thats what he wanted to say.
 
C

CCIE

Banned
Told you to expect a new Minecraft type of game... maybe my clients aren't that bad of a source of information. Both the good and the bad. I'll have to keep kissing their ass to see what else I can find out next time I am in Redmond.
 
S

Strootman

Member
CCIE said:
Told you to expect a new Minecraft type of game... maybe my clients aren't that bad of a source of information. Both the good and the bad. I'll have to keep kissing their ass to see what else I can find out next time I am in Redmond.
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Minecraft 2?
 
S

SneakersSO

Member
Vinc said:
I just have one thing to say about this:

> Forza has no equivalence on the console and took advantage of Gran Turismo's failings since the PS3 gen.

> Halo had no equivalence when it launched on a very broad scope (console shooters were rare), and had no equivalence until Destiny / COD came out. It's now starting to downplay its differences and trying to be more like other franchises, much to the fanbase's dismay, and the numbers keep going down.

> Gears had no equivalence when it came out and it was very successful. Now other, similar games have started coming out and chipped away at its relevance.

> Minecraft has no equivalence.

> Sea of Thieves looks like it could be successful, but my main worries are all about it potentially "trying to be like Destiny" or some free-to-play games. Waiting to hear more, but the farther away it gets from these concepts, the more I'll be sold on it.

> Xbox Live as a whole was a unique concept back when it launched and for a long time during the last gen.

The path to success is differentiation. Each game has to justify its existence in the modern market. MS themselves have found most of their success this way.
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I wouldn't bring 'Minecraft' into your list; MS didn't create it. Sea of Thieves is unfortunately going to bomb, as fun as the game may wind up being in the end. It's just not pulling in large enough interest, and most of its announcements are just muted. It's a thing the hardcore fanbase of the Xbox & Rare groups follow, but outside of that, its not making any noise.

The reoccurring trend I see in your list is that, back when the Xbox division was in the business of striking out & blazing their own path, they used to knock things out of the park. This can probably be charted all the way to Kinect, which should also be on your list. It's from the point of Kinect's release till now that is the downward trend with seemingly no end.
 
D

DriftingSpirit

Member
Collingwood said:
I don't get Microsoft.

Fine. You don't want to invest in NEW studios. Cool. Studios are expensive to run, games cost a lot of money to make for potentially no return. I GET IT.

But fuck me, 343, Coalition and Rare a HUUUUUGE fucking studios. Learn how to manage your fucking resources and allow these behemoth studios to assign a small team to make smaller scale new games. Little projects that cost very little dev time that are low investment/high return. It gives the library some diversity and has the potential to spawn a great little franchise should a game really take off.

You can even NAME the off shoot studios. 343 Play, The Horde, Rare Funlabs so it on the surface looks like a separate studio, but at a moments notice they can be re-absorbed into the main studio to help with the Halo/Gears games they were created for.

I mean one oooooon. It's not that hard.
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Yep, it should be feasible but it doesn't align with their internal goals.
 
J

jayu26

Member
I think he means Minecraft VR is not coming to PSVR and will be console exclusive to Xbox. I think that Phil thinks that is a killer app. I personally don't think that. I also think that I might be underestimating the pull and allure of Minecraft VR.
 
L

Linkified

Member
SneakersSO said:
I wouldn't bring 'Minecraft' into your list; MS didn't create it. Sea of Thieves is unfortunately going to bomb, as fun as the game may wind up being in the end. It's just not pulling in large enough interest, and most of its announcements are just muted. It's a thing the hardcore fanbase of the Xbox & Rare groups follow, but outside of that, its not making any noise.

The reoccurring trend I see in your list is that, back when the Xbox division was in the business of striking out & blazing their own path, they used to knock things out of the park. This can probably be charted all the way to Kinect, which should also be on your list. It's from the point of Kinect's release till now that is the downward trend with seemingly no end.
Click to expand...

Can I ask how you are measuring interest level? Because statements like this without sales numbers are impossible to say.
 
C

Chris1

Member
jayu26 said:
I think he means Minecraft VR is not coming to PSVR and will be console exclusive to Xbox. I think that Phil thinks that is a killer app. I personally don't think that. I also think that I might be underestimating the pull and allure of Minecraft VR.
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I forgot Scorpio is getting VR

They're gonna waste 10 minutes on a Minecraft VR demo again aren't they
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
come on yall - the ultimate announcement for Scorpio is the secret sauce to be hololens extender!

Put on the hololens while playing forze 7 and see __________!

lololololol
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
FinaruDensetsu said:
Ugh why does Phil always respond to people like Timdog so much? Does he really not know who and what these people are like?

Like it's not even like these guys are hiding the nasty shit they do and say. Why legitimize these guys?
Click to expand...

Because they say things he can't say for him. Get vocal fans riled up to go do battles on forums and social media.
 
digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
Collingwood said:
I don't get Microsoft.

Fine. You don't want to invest in NEW studios. Cool. Studios are expensive to run, games cost a lot of money to make for potentially no return. I GET IT.

But fuck me, 343, Coalition and Rare a HUUUUUGE fucking studios. Learn how to manage your fucking resources and allow these behemoth studios to assign a small team to make smaller scale new games. Little projects that cost very little dev time that are low investment/high return. It gives the library some diversity and has the potential to spawn a great little franchise should a game really take off.

You can even NAME the off shoot studios. 343 Play, The Horde, Rare Funlabs so it on the surface looks like a separate studio, but at a moments notice they can be re-absorbed into the main studio to help with the Halo/Gears games they were created for.

I mean one oooooon. It's not that hard.
Click to expand...

clap.gif
 
V

Vinc

Member
SneakersSO said:
I wouldn't bring 'Minecraft' into your list; MS didn't create it. Sea of Thieves is unfortunately going to bomb, as fun as the game may wind up being in the end. It's just not pulling in large enough interest, and most of its announcements are just muted. It's a thing the hardcore fanbase of the Xbox & Rare groups follow, but outside of that, its not making any noise.

The reoccurring trend I see in your list is that, back when the Xbox division was in the business of striking out & blazing their own path, they used to knock things out of the park. This can probably be charted all the way to Kinect, which should also be on your list. It's from the point of Kinect's release till now that is the downward trend with seemingly no end.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but whether they created it or not, I just meant to illustrate that pretty much all things that have been successful for them have been trailblazing concepts and ideas.

Kinect is also another semi-good one, though it was pretty much the eyetoy 2.0. The problem here is that instead of doubling down on the hardcore gamer ON TOP of Kinect, they seemed to drop that group to go after the Wii market at the time. I do also think they clearly need more funding, and the Xbox One's initial troubles is still haunting them. It's hard to make the hardware desirable after that initial impression, so they had to really focus on the software. I just frankly don't think they've made anything that made me go "wow" this gen. Sea of Thieves sounds pretty cool, but the messaging around it is confusing so far. As someone who WANTS to be interested in the game, it's basically my imagination doing the work and making me think it could be cool. The only concrete thing that makes me "excited" is that it's a Rare game about pirates. We don't concretely know much else about the game, which reminds me of the No Man's Sky problem without the huge promises and hype cycle to carry it.
 
SEGAvangelist

SEGAvangelist

Member
Linkified said:
Can I ask how you are measuring interest level? Because statements like this without sales numbers are impossible to say.
Click to expand...

Probably just guessing based on GAF posts and his social networking circle along with talks among other developers. I think the game has a chance to do very well as long as MS tempers its expectations and lets the game grow through word of mouth.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Linkified said:
Can I ask how you are measuring interest level? Because statements like this without sales numbers are impossible to say.
Click to expand...

Bear Cub in Sky said:
Probably just guessing based on GAF posts and his social networking circle along with talks among other developers. I think the game has a chance to do very well as long as MS tempers its expectations and lets the game grow through word of mouth.
Click to expand...
Sea of Thieves will blow up like Division did after a beta and twitch streamers will carry the game post launch

I think it's gonna be massive, couple mill sales

Collingwood said:

Commercially? Evolve 2.0
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Didn't evolve sell good though

Also, I don't think it'll be 90+ Meta. Maybe like 82 83.
 
P

Primethius

Banned
Chris1 said:
Sea of Thieves will blow up like Division did after a beta and twitch streamers will carry the game post launch

I think it's gonna be massive, couple mill sales
Click to expand...

That's what I'm thinking is a good scenario if Twitch streaming works out. I don't know if it will yet, but there's a really good chance it might.
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
Collingwood said:
Critically? 90 plus on Metacritic.

Commercially? Evolve 2.0

Any game that FORCES co-operative play with a group of friends for maximum enjoyment is destined to fail.
Click to expand...

did you do that on purpose??? :p

edit:

@r3ivajx @CKauzlaric Gave me a new @RealVoodooVince build in early December. I love it.

ITS ALLIIIVEE!!! LOL
 
R

RealityPales

Member
I wonder why Microsoft don't invest in building first-party studios.

Without combining those with partner studio offerings, things look sparse.

Granted, Halo + Gears + Forza + Minecraft is a beautiful combination. But you have to wonder how long putting all their chips in so few places will play out years from now.
 
S

shinobi602

Member
Strootman said:
According to windows central, games as a service is the future for microsoft

http://www.windowscentral.com/what-can-we-expect-microsoft-studios-future
Click to expand...

Sjefen said:
Probably why they bought Minecraft
Click to expand...
That's precisely why they paid $2 billion for Minecraft. I fully see 'games-as-a-service' to be the driving direction for the platform and creep into the last couple major, internal first party IP they have like Halo and Gears. In my opinion I expect a heavy focus on the 'sports' scene.

And that's why I'm just slowly becoming a little more cynical with platform overall, even though Gears and Halo are two of my favorite series of all time.
 
S

SneakersSO

Member
Linkified said:
Can I ask how you are measuring interest level? Because statements like this without sales numbers are impossible to say.
Click to expand...

Personally, I just look at social media engagement. Facebook, YT, Twitter, even the amount of GAF pages a SoT thread can generate - these are all good indicators of interest for console games.
 
S

Samurai G0SU

Member
OOHHPO


@XboxP3 Confidence in brand >>> "winning E3" due to having more new information during the event; I think most would prefer Scorpio pre-E3.
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Phil SpencerVerified account
‏@XboxP3
@Bgamer90 You are right, I'd add happiness with the product trumps all, confidence in brand is important. PR wins aren't really my focus.

here we go - PRE SHOW FOR THE SCORPIO!!!!!!! HYPE HYPE HYPE LOL jk no hype yet..... or am i jk? o_O
 
Kssio_Aug

Kssio_Aug

Member
Chris1 said:
Sea of Thieves will blow up like Division did after a beta and twitch streamers will carry the game post launch

I think it's gonna be massive, couple mill sales
Click to expand...

I hope it succeeds as The Division / Destiny (in its own proportions as a XB1/W10 exclusive of course). But I really am not looking forward to another co-op only game.

I know they said you could play alone, but theorically Destiny and The Division you could as well, but both are pretty shitty without partners, and I'm pretty sure that's exactly what's gonna happen to SoT.

Also, they need to show me the PvE. I'm completely not sold yet since I don't care with PvP.
 
O

onemanasylum

Banned
Chris1 said:
I think it'll probably be the best selling xbox exclusive this gen (at least so far), that's why I said massive but I guess the numbers on it's own isn't massive
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Sea of thieves sell more then Halo? lol, we will have to agree to disagree. Don;t see it selling much at all.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
Sea of Thieves is always online right? That's a big strike against for me. I'd have been more interested in a single player pirate game, with co-op optional.
 
C

Chris1

Member
Primethius said:
No way is it outdoing Halo 5.
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It's hard to tell since we don't know how much Halo 5 sold but if I'm guessing maybe 4-5M after a year?

I can see that for SOT (if it's actually good and not evolve 2.0)
onemanasylum said:
Sea of thieves sell more then Halo? lol, we will have to agree to disagree. Don;t see it selling much at all.
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Risky prediction but I can see it, Halo 5 dropped off twitch etc fast whereas I think SOT will stay around for a long time, plus it's on PC this time aswell. Also 2 years later with a bigger install base, new fresh IP so no negative stigma and a lot of negativity around xbox is gone now compared to when Halo launched

* Assuming the game is actually good
 
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