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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

Or they were taking advantage of a natural opportunity that came up since one of the bigger titles they had in the pipe to showcase Scorpio support had just been cancelled (Scalebound). Its being done to help mitigate the idea that 1st party Scorpio support is anemic, which is exactly what we're talking about in this very thread.

Had Scalebound not been canned, Tankbot + its area would've been released when they said it was going to be originally (late winter/spring 2017). If this was something that was born from the initial reception or sales, you would've never heard a release timetable for that content, cause they would've just saved all that for one big E3 announcement, versus already telling the audience "Here is what is coming", not delivering it, and coyly not answering any questions as to what is going on until June.

Did they actually give an initial timetable on the Tankbot? Pretty sure we didn't even know the thing was coming for sure until a couple months after release.

Plus, I'm not really seeing the inherent contradiction here. If they were still pumping money into ReCore to finish it out, there's certainly a fair bit of push behind the idea that they thought it earned extended support, even if not the same level of support it's getting now that it's filling out the Scorpio launch.
 
Did they actually give an initial timetable on the Tankbot? Pretty sure we didn't even know the thing was coming for sure until a couple months after release.

Plus, I'm not really seeing the inherent contradiction here. If they were still pumping money into ReCore to finish it out, there's certainly a fair bit of push behind the idea that they thought it earned extended support, even if not the same level of support it's getting now that it's filling out the Scorpio launch.

Tankbot & its map area & dungeon content were already asset complete & almost all implemented even into the base game, there are videos of people accessing that stuff online right now. Its not some feature they had to pour a ton of money into. And all MS releases have some sort of post-launch DLC, its typically a part of the intial deal signed, so its not like they didn't have some fund already going into the game after its launch, regardless of success.

I'm not gonna argue that Phil Spencer doesn't have a vested interest in this game, but to think they are throwing caution to the wind & dumping this absurd fund into this game simply on 'belief' is silly.

As for the 'Did they actually give an initial timetable for the tankbot', here is a trailer on the official Recore channel showcasing tankbot with an 'Early 2017' at the end of it, and it was published in early December, 3 months after the game had launched initially.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ugYQiN2TU
 
The Shannon Fourteen:

Confirmed:
1. Scalebound ( cancelled )
2. ReCore
3. Killer Instinct
4. Crackdown 3
5. State of Decay 2

Unspecified:
6. Halo Wars 2
7. Forza Horizon 3
8. Sea of Thieves
9. Gears of War 4

Rumored:
10. Halo 6
11. Forza Motorsport 7
12. Ori 2
13. Unannounced Rare Project #2
14. Unanounced Ex.Dev Project

Honestly, that 14 games quote feels weird. It's way too low, considering she loops in Killer Instinct into the equation.

From what I can tell from the original video, Shannon has nothing to do with internal projects and their sub-projects so halo, gears, forza, Rare are all not included even the Horizon stuff because it's turn10, same for HW2 and 343.

Ori 2 would be part of it and Phantom Dust was part of it too (the og xbox port to XB1) plus the first 5 gave 7 in total, meaning 7 projects unannounced, I can't remember if it was ever narrowed down further
 
From what I can tell from the original video, Shannon has nothing to do with internal projects and their sub-projects so halo, gears, forza, Rare are all not included even the Horizon stuff because it's turn10, same for HW2 and 343.

Ori 2 would be part of it and Phantom Dust was part of it too (the og xbox port to XB1) plus the first 5 gave 7 in total, meaning 7 projects unannounced, I can't remember if it was ever narrowed down further

Thanks, that helps a whole lot in contextualizing why the heck some games are left out of her comments.
 
From what I can tell from the original video, Shannon has nothing to do with internal projects and their sub-projects so halo, gears, forza, Rare are all not included even the Horizon stuff because it's turn10, same for HW2 and 343.

Ori 2 would be part of it and Phantom Dust was part of it too (the og xbox port to XB1) plus the first 5 gave 7 in total, meaning 7 projects unannounced, I can't remember if it was ever narrowed down further

Yep

More accurate list:

1.) scalebound (whoops)
2.) Crackdown
3.) State of Decay 2
4.) Halo Wars DE
6.) Killer Instinct
7.) Recore
8.) Age of Empires PC expansions
9.) Phantom Dust HD
10.) Ori 2

Probably some other games that are still receiving support

Probably one 2 or so games we don't know about
 

Salty Hippo

Member
Yep

More accurate list:

1.) scalebound (whoops)
2.) Crackdown
3.) State of Decay 2
4.) Halo Wars DE
6.) Killer Instinct
7.) Recore
8.) Age of Empires PC expansions
9.) Phantom Dust HD
10.) Ori 2

Probably some other games that are still receiving support

Probably one 2 or so games we don't know about

+ Voodoo Vince?
 

JlNX

Member
From what I can tell from the original video, Shannon has nothing to do with internal projects and their sub-projects so halo, gears, forza, Rare are all not included even the Horizon stuff because it's turn10, same for HW2 and 343.

Ori 2 would be part of it and Phantom Dust was part of it too (the og xbox port to XB1) plus the first 5 gave 7 in total, meaning 7 projects unannounced, I can't remember if it was ever narrowed down further

Yep, I was wondering about that when she left of gears and forza from her internal projects at E3, she seems to handle second party projects. 7 projects? surely something would have leaked. I'm guessing one of those is a killer instinct sequel given Iron Galaxy ramping down production on KI from 18 April 2016 onwards. The fact that she wouldn't be involved in first party would rule out Rare's second project. 6 projects without including first party projects seems like to many projects in development for Shinobi have the sort of response he had, unless his source don't know everything. E3 needs to happen!!
 
The sad thing is that publishers nowadays aren't generally interested in creating franchises unless the first game is a smash-hit out of the gate. I mean, for example, the original Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon games were very niche and weren't big sellers, but over time Ubisoft built on and supported them over the years, and made a pair of huge AAA franchises from them. Sony and MS need to step back and realise that sometimes even if the first game isn't a smash-hit, if played right the sequel can still become massive. Of course it's easy for me to say that on a forum when I'm not looking at figures and losing $40 million after a flop, but seeing as publishers are so guarded about sales numbers I have no choice but to make educated guesses.

I really think the likes of Ryse, Recore, Driveclub and The Order 1886 could be big hits with sequels that address their issues, but they need that publisher support.

Spoken as someone with no clue about the realities of game development, Recore sequel shouldn't be TOO expensive right? It was a mid-tier game rather than a full on AAA title.

I still think we'll see Ryse 2. With Crytek being in the position they are, and MS needing more exclusives and graphics showcases, it seems inevitable.

I hope you're right.
 
Yep

More accurate list:

1.) scalebound (whoops)
2.) Crackdown
3.) State of Decay 2
4.) Halo Wars DE
6.) Killer Instinct
7.) Recore
8.) Age of Empires PC expansions
9.) Phantom Dust HD
10.) Ori 2

Probably some other games that are still receiving support

Probably one 2 or so games we don't know about

Halo Wars DE also wouldn't count, and age of empires 2 expansion, was it even in dev then? Not sure the timescale on that or what is going on. Given the skybox partnership is known though don't see why she wouldn't name drop it with the others

Yep, I was wondering about that when she left of gears and forza from her internal projects at E3, she seems to handle second party projects. 7 projects? surely something would have leaked. I'm guessing one of those is a killer instinct sequel given Iron Galaxy ramping down production on KI from 18 April 2016 onwards. The fact that she wouldn't be involved in first party would rule out Rare's second project. 6 projects without including first party projects seems like to many projects in development for Shinobi have the sort of response he had, unless his source don't know everything. E3 needs to happen!!

Tbh 7 doesn't seem like a lot to me considering they could include xbox remasters, smaller games and AAA, how far ahead do you sign a game? 2/3/4 years? I guess it depends what the list is actually made up of and what they've signed since
 

FelipeMGM

Member
Good for them. And like Ori, right?

yeah, but for different reasons. Microsoft Studios owns the Ori IP, while Ashen and Cuphead are not but owned by MS. They were secured as console exclusives through other kinds of deals

Not sure if posted

https://twitter.com/BillGiese/status/854745467371962368

FFXV team visited turn10 lately, scorpio patch for FFXV?

For that...

...And I hope its also because they want to learn some stuff so they can make you legit drive the car in FFXVI
 

JlNX

Member
Yep

More accurate list:

1.) scalebound (whoops)
2.) Crackdown
3.) State of Decay 2
4.) Halo Wars DE
6.) Killer Instinct
7.) Recore
8.) Age of Empires PC expansions
9.) Phantom Dust HD
10.) Ori 2

Probably some other games that are still receiving support

Probably one 2 or so games we don't know about

Halo wars DE would be under 343 as a internal project. Age of empires expansions, I don't know if that would count under "title's in development." Also theres only nine things in your list you left out the number 5.
 

JlNX

Member
Tbh 7 doesn't seem like a lot to me considering they could include xbox remasters, smaller games and AAA, how far ahead do you sign a game? 2/3/4 years? I guess it depends what the list is actually made up of and what they've signed since

Oh yeh I meant not as doom and gloom as Shinobi was coming of, not that it was a lot to have in development.

Have there been any hints of other Xbox remasters in the works? It seems like they are the exception rather than the rule. Given the closing of press play, twisted pixel and other small internal teams I highly doubt they are pursuing smaller games. Ori seems to be a exception, due to it's success and before Phil gutted first party. If I remember Phil mentioned that ID@XBOX is the focus for smaller games not internal projects. Recore is probably as small as we get, Recore is following a trend with Microsoft of launching low budget smaller team size games that if they are successful they get AAA sequel like SOD. I expect we will see the same with KI and Ori this year, both have a lot of room to grow.

Well she did say in development, so obviously it's active. Yeh, if we are going to see very many of them at this E3 or at all. This new focus on waiting till games are ready to show them of will definitely hurt them in the short term if none of those projects are scheduled for next year. I hope for their sake the rest of the project are similar in scope to crackdown and SOD. I hate the fact that second party projects are so vague and unknown.

RAD's next project do we know of a publisher, that could maybe be signed by Microsoft, I can't think of any other publisher that would take that sort of AAA risk on them as a studio. Still very unlikely but MS studio has made weirder moves with Insomniac and Double Helix.
 

JlNX

Member
Nah, we don't know the publisher for RAD's title. MS should scoop it up since they only just started pre production.

I wouldn't be surprised if starbrezze, perfect world or deep silver are publishing it. The ideal would be that RAD work with the Microsoft studios development team, similar to RAD and SSM. With Coalition co-developing alongside them, Coalition would be the perfect team for them to work with for gameplay, enemy design and level design for TPS. Great Graphical showcase for scorpio.
 
I think RAD could make them a nice TPS with coop as well as maybe a horde mode. The game would look stunning. They also are one of the few independent devs left that could do a AAA game. The game would look visually stunning that's for sure.
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Stupid question -

Any chance that Star Citizen could run well on Scorpio?
 
Halo wars DE would be under 343 as a internal project. Age of empires expansions, I don't know if that would count under "title's in development." Also theres only nine things in your list you left out the number 5.
Haha only crap I didn't realize I left out 5 til just now.

And ya, Halo Wars DE can be removed.

I'm wondering if they were counting games they are partially funding (Cuphead, Ashen)
 
Spoken as someone with no clue about the realities of game development, Recore sequel shouldn't be TOO expensive right? It was a mid-tier game rather than a full on AAA title.

You would think so. I mean, I have no idea about the realities of budgeting mid-sized developments like Recore and I can't see any info about studio size on Armature's website but I'd guess it cost like a quarter of something like Gears 4. It doesn't seem like it'd be too expensive to give them a crack at a sequel, but I guess that depends if it met sales expectations and turned a profit. Again, as publishers rarely share this information it's really hard to make informed guesses so we're a bit blind and often probably sound totally ignorant to people working in the industry!
 

Chris1

Member
You would think so. I mean, I have no idea about the realities of budgeting mid-sized developments like Recore and I can't see any info about studio size on Armature's website but I'd guess it cost like a quarter of something like Gears 4. It doesn't seem like it'd be too expensive to give them a crack at a sequel, but I guess that depends if it met sales expectations and turned a profit. Again, as publishers rarely share this information it's really hard to make informed guesses so we're a bit blind and often probably sound totally ignorant to people working in the industry!

Wiki has them at 50, and linkedin at 11-50.

I doubt recore was expensive to make, I reckon there'll be a sequel to that. I mean the potential is definitely there, they just need to flesh it out a good bit and polish it up
 

JlNX

Member
Wiki has them at 50, and linkedin at 11-50.

I doubt recore was expensive to make, I reckon there'll be a sequel to that, I mean the potential is definitely there, they just need to flesh it out a good bit and polish it up

They also had dead star and unity work in development alongside Recore if I remember correctly. So 40 or so people for just over 2 years of development time would not be very expensive in comparison to a gears or even a state of decay 1.

A UE4 sequel building of the original, with the amount of q&a needed would already be a vast improvement to the majority of all the complaints.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Oh yeah, RAD would be a good get for Microsoft. They should maybe try working with People Can Fly, too. And while we're at it, give the Obsidian relationship another shot (no chance in hell on that one, sadly).
 

JlNX

Member
Oh yeah, RAD would be a good get for Microsoft. They should maybe try working with People Can Fly, too. And while we're at it, give the Obsidian relationship another shot (no chance in hell on that one, sadly).

People can fly is already working on it's own AAA UE4 project, while obsidian is probably not the best company to partner with given their development history and team size.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
People can fly is already working on it's own AAA UE4 project, while obsidian is probably not the best company to partner with given their development history and team size.

Microsoft could probably snap up the People Can Fly game if they wanted; it's still early days on that one. As for Obsidian, yeah, I don't think they'll want to go near Microsoft after they canceled Stormlands and nearly sank the company.
 

Salty Hippo

Member
It's from 2014 but I found Xbox Co-Creator Ed Fries' comments interesting, some behind the scenes stuff that led to him leaving

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-20-fries-publishers-created-a-void-that-indies-stepped-into

There's also a really good IGN interview with him.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/30/ign-unfiltered-08-xbox-co-creator-ed-fries

Xbox would have benefited immensely from a guy like Ed Fries after the Peter Moore era. A guy who actually loves games, not just what appears on the top of the charts like a certain someone. A guy who was obssessed with building a portfolio as big and diverse as possible, covering every genre. It's no wonder he didn't last long at Microsoft.
 
There's also a really good IGN interview with him.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/30/ign-unfiltered-08-xbox-co-creator-ed-fries

Xbox would have benefited immensely from a guy like Ed Fries after the Peter Moore era. A guy who actually loves games, not just what appears on the top of the charts like a certain someone. A guy who was obssessed with building a portfolio as big and diverse as possible, covering every genre. It's no wonder he didn't last long at Microsoft.

Totally agree, I mean, it comes to a point where I ask why they are in the business in the first place, it's like risk of stagnation is immune to them and as a fan I get frustrated at them more than ever when I would much rather praise
 

Trago

Member
There's also a really good IGN interview with him.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/06/30/ign-unfiltered-08-xbox-co-creator-ed-fries

Xbox would have benefited immensely from a guy like Ed Fries after the Peter Moore era. A guy who actually loves games, not just what appears on the top of the charts like a certain someone. A guy who was obssessed with building a portfolio as big and diverse as possible, covering every genre. It's no wonder he didn't last long at Microsoft.

All the studio closures and cancellations didn't help either. I'm holding out for E3 to deliver something exciting and new from Microsoft this year, but I don't want to get my hopes up too high.
 
I would really be surprised if they have some hidden games. They've been air tight.

In other news Ken Lobb accepted my invite on LinkedIn lmao.
I'm sure they have 1-2, but I doubt they're anything major. Somewhere between Ori and Recore size. Not that those sized games are a bad thing, but they aren't likely to change the perception of their lineup
 
I'm sure they have 1-2, but I doubt they're anything major. Somewhere between Ori and Recore size. Not that those sized games are a bad thing, but they aren't likely to change the perception of their lineup

Disagree. I do think out of the 7 unknown projects, even if they're far off, I think there's at least 2 AAA-level games.

Historically MS do try to balance out their internal/external AAA portfolio, and it's hard to imagine that they aren't trying to find more devs that can deliver to them a Crackdown 3/State of Decay 2 level game as opposed to just another ReCore or Ori.
 
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