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new "the initiative" presentation video

Kagero

Member
Excited to see what they come up with. Still don’t like the name but I’m sure it will grow on me as soon as they create a solid game. Sounds like the name of a Ubisoft knock off game.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
We both know Death Stranding will be a homerun. This studio doesn't have a 'Kojima' in their team to guide them into a great visionary concept.
"Homerun". You mean like Metal Gear Solid 5 ?


People, seriously think Kojima develops his games alone.
In case of Initiative, there are many industry veterans working on it, but yeah they will fail because NeoGaf preached it. They are not interns.
as a person that did not like Tomb Raider i agree. most overrated franchise of this gen. and MS made him creative lead.
And he made that in 2 years.
 

Gamernyc78

Banned
They are driven and have something to prove and Microsoft are looking to them, I have a good feeling about what they will bring. I think their first game will end up being a solid, good game and hopefully will be the beginning of a line of many more. Microsoft needs another Forza like dev they can rely on year in and year out.
 

Pallas

Member
Not sold, cause there ain't nothing to buy.

Seems like a waste of money to be cutting promos like this when they could be making a videogame.

I don’t think it’s exactly directed toward consumers, though you can take it that way if you wish.

I mean they obviously gotta move their shit in first, making AAA games in their garage ain’t practical.
 

pr0cs

Member
I'm excited to see what they can come up with. I'd love a new franchise, something that Xbox current gen never seemed to have. There were good Xbox exclusives to be had but nothing that was unique to the gen and said Xbox like gears of war last gen
 
We both know Death Stranding will be a homerun. This studio doesn't have a 'Kojima' in their team to guide them into a great visionary concept.
We don't even know what it is, 3 years after its initial announcement.

Kojima: "It's an action game!"

*introduces cosmic horror elements*

Gamers: "Oh, so it's a horror game?? Is Silent Hills back from the grave??"
Kojima: "NO, it's not a horror game, it's an open world action game!"
Gamers: "So a walking simulator?"
Kojima: "NO, ropes and sticks!!"
Gamers: "So it really is a walking simulator?"
Kojima: "NO"
Gamers: "When will the game be complete so we can finally know what this mess of a game is?"
Kojima: "YES"
 
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Shifty

Member
Why are people so negative
Because excessive PR talk is tiresome, particularly from a studio that has yet to show anything of substance.

It's all talk and no walk.

Coz it's MS studio filled with good talents picked from lot of Sony studios. So haters are salty and want to shit on studio as much as they can.


If this was Sony own studio then they would have jizzed their pants just by watching this promotional video.
Nice job showing your hand there, sport :lollipop_smirking:

Some of us are above the console war bullshit.
 
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TeamGhobad

Banned
Overrated my ass, TR Reboot were pretty good games.

Kojima i would say is overrated. Guy is perverted creep too. His design of Quiet says it all.

Quiet was amazing, you silly soyboy

53N535.gif
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
I don’t think it’s exactly directed toward consumers, though you can take it that way if you wish.

I mean they obviously gotta move their shit in first, making AAA games in their garage ain’t practical.
It's definitely not a garage. It's the same office, that was once used by Xbox Entertainment Studios.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Quiet was amazing, you silly soyboy

53N535.gif
You know I like these stuffs in games like Oneechanbara or Senran Kagura or Dead or Alive because either it's a part of the games theme or they treat it is a joke. But not when the game is trying to take itself so seriously.
 

TeamGhobad

Banned
You know I like these stuffs in games like Oneechanbara or Senran Kagura or Dead or Alive because either it's a part of the games theme or they treat it is a joke. But not when the game is trying to take itself so seriously.

kojima didn't have enough time to make it more meaningful.
 
This video, I believe is more of a statement of intent than it is a hype project. Microsoft clearly want to take Sony's position in the market and to do so, they need their... well, Naughty Dog. Their studio that they can depend on to create a hit project. The question, if anything, is can these guys pull it off?

It's hard to really creatively push boundaries that nobody else is currently exploring or really delving into a narrative with little to no presence. I just hope it's not too close to Sony IP. I wouldn't want to see Microsoft's Uncharted or InFamous. I'd rather see something new and fresh.

Microsoft have never sold me on XBOX and if they really want to, here is their chance. I mean they're buying up developers who's games I enjoy and have been multi-platform for some time that it better be fucking worth it. Else wise I just stick to playing them on PC. Really makes me wonder why they persist with hardware development these days when I can see Microsoft realistically being the biggest third party developer there could be.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
This video, I believe is more of a statement of intent than it is a hype project. Microsoft clearly want to take Sony's position in the market and to do so, they need their... well, Naughty Dog. Their studio that they can depend on to create a hit project. The question, if anything, is can these guys pull it off?

It's hard to really creatively push boundaries that nobody else is currently exploring or really delving into a narrative with little to no presence. I just hope it's not too close to Sony IP. I wouldn't want to see Microsoft's Uncharted or InFamous. I'd rather see something new and fresh.

Microsoft have never sold me on XBOX and if they really want to, here is their chance. I mean they're buying up developers who's games I enjoy and have been multi-platform for some time that it better be fucking worth it. Else wise I just stick to playing them on PC. Really makes me wonder why they persist with hardware development these days when I can see Microsoft realistically being the biggest third party developer there could be.
They also really want to make big AAA RPGs(something Sony does not have) with Playground Games, Obsidian and InXile.
Also, we will probably hear about Ninja Theory's next project this E3.
 
They also really want to make big AAA RPGs(something Sony does not have) with Playground Games, Obsidian and InXile.
Also, we will probably hear about Ninja Theory's next project this E3.

It depends how you define RPG since it can fit so many different contexts in modern games. But I feel you. Sony don't seem to want to sell us the big AAA Japanese RPG's like we had of yesteryear, even though Valkyrie Profile, Tales of, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Grandia, Legend of Mana etc. All amazing games from the era.

I don't like the Ninja Theory acquisition. They are a studio I very much admire and enjoy their work but I don't think it's ideal for Microsoft to acquire them as a developer when they've had such a history with Sony and I have all their titles on PlayStation platforms. Shit happens right? But I don't think many people would appreciate it if Sony snapped up Remedy for example, when they're well known for being a Microsoft partner.

RPG's are also a tough sell sometimes I find. I think Sony may attempt to fill this gap in the market by leveraging Demon's Souls or developing IP like Bloodborne that fill that gap but also the niche that people love the challenges from these hard games.

Even so, I think Sony do need to broaden their horizon (no pun intended) and look at giving us titles like a big Soul Sacrifice AAA RPG for example. So much potential. So much and it's squandered dying a death on Vita. Or even a cyberpunk type game from Sony Japan. I get so excited just seeing that dream reveal in my head at E3... the music starts playing... birth of a cyborg... Sony Computer Entertainment Japan presents... in partnership with Kenji Kawai and Production I.G... Ghost in the Shell.... Only in my dreams......
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
It depends how you define RPG since it can fit so many different contexts in modern games. But I feel you. Sony don't seem to want to sell us the big AAA Japanese RPG's like we had of yesteryear, even though Valkyrie Profile, Tales of, Xenogears, Legend of Dragoon, Grandia, Legend of Mana etc. All amazing games from the era.

I don't like the Ninja Theory acquisition. They are a studio I very much admire and enjoy their work but I don't think it's ideal for Microsoft to acquire them as a developer when they've had such a history with Sony and I have all their titles on PlayStation platforms. Shit happens right? But I don't think many people would appreciate it if Sony snapped up Remedy for example, when they're well known for being a Microsoft partner.

RPG's are also a tough sell sometimes I find. I think Sony may attempt to fill this gap in the market by leveraging Demon's Souls or developing IP like Bloodborne that fill that gap but also the niche that people love the challenges from these hard games.

Even so, I think Sony do need to broaden their horizon (no pun intended) and look at giving us titles like a big Soul Sacrifice AAA RPG for example. So much potential. So much and it's squandered dying a death on Vita. Or even a cyberpunk type game from Sony Japan. I get so excited just seeing that dream reveal in my head at E3... the music starts playing... birth of a cyborg... Sony Computer Entertainment Japan presents... in partnership with Kenji Kawai and Production I.G... Ghost in the Shell.... Only in my dreams......
By RPGs I don't mean games with RPG mechanics but actual RPG games
Ninja Theory only made one PS3 exclusive (Heavenly Sword) and one Xbox exclusive (Kung Fu Chaos). The rest are all multi-platform. On the other hand, Remedy only ever either made Xbox exclusives or multi-plats. Also, Ninja Theory seem to be really grateful of Microsoft buying them, since they would have shut down otherwise.
After hearing about cyberpunk, I wonder if Microsoft will ever visit Shadowrun. Although, from Chris Avellone's RPG Codex posts it seems like Josh Sawyer's next project will be Pillars of Eternity AAA action RPG, so maybe Tim Cain will try it(wishful thinking).
Seriously, Microsoft should hire James Ohlen(Baldurs Gate creator). That guy left Bioware because he wanted to work on DnD. Or buy Team Grounding, Yukio Futatsugi wanted to make a Crimson Dragon RPG.
 
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By RPGs I don't mean games with RPG mechanics but actual RPG games
Ninja Theory only made one PS3 exclusive (Heavenly Sword) and one Xbox exclusive (Kung Fu Chaos). The rest are all multi-platform. On the other hand, Remedy only ever either made Xbox exclusives or multi-plats. They seem to be really grateful of Microsoft buying them, since they would have shut down otherwise.
After hearing about cyberpunk, I wonder if Microsoft will ever visit Shadowrun. Although, from Chris Avellone's RPG Codex posts it seems like Josh Sawyer's next project will be Pillars of Eternity AAA action RPG, so maybe Tim Cain will try it(wishful thinking).
Seriously, Microsoft should hire James Ohlen(Baldurs Gate creator). That guy left Bioware because he wanted to work on DnD. Or buy Team Grounding, Yukio Futatsugi wanted to make a Crimson Dragon RPG.

Whilst I see your points, I cannot wholly agree with your points on Ninja Theory. Kung Fu Chaos from when they were Just Add Monsters was a financial failure coming from the people who made titles like Croc and Croc 2 (the same people who had a really good relationship with Sony after Nintendo ditched their vision for Yoshi 64.) Microsoft wouldn't fund the sequel to Kung Fu Chaos 2 and turned down more funding which could have sent JAM bankrupt all the way back them, but they sold Sony on their vision, which took a lot of time but Sony literally saved them from bankruptcy, After Microsoft turned them down for KFC2 JAM went into administration and the core staff had to remortgage their assets. So in a sense, this is one reason I was so surprised because Microsoft hurt them, probably as bad as they hurt Oddworld Inhabitants. Both thankfully bounced back.

But irrespective of the troubled development, Heavenly Sword laid an amazing foundation for the trilogy that NT originally thought out but not wanting to adopt PSN into the sequel and tone down the development costs for their magnum opus follow up they had to part ways with Sony. Enslaved was a failure but they found success when they were headhunted by Capcom and earned good money in royalties from DmC, which I still think was an excellent game. However DmC sold drastically better on PS3, Fightback was just dipping their toes into the water in the iOS world and Dexed never saw release on the XBOX but did on PS4. Admittedly on Windows also but the point still stands. No XBOX port. Then Hellblade was announced by Sony and they put a great deal of effort into advertising it also. I remember the page layout on the PlayStation store when it launched.

It was also a very profitable project for them. They were in profit at the initial sales of 500,000 - never mind when it passed the 1 million marker.

Honestly I would have preferred to see them stay independent but I believe like Super Massive, they would have thrived third party. Hell, I would have let them make DmC 2. Looking at the history, saving them from bankruptcy, the relationship they must have had to deliver products to the PlayStation platform both exclusive and timed, there was a good relationship there. Joining Microsoft meant giving that up. I just hope they don't regret it. I thought Lionhead would never close down but hey ho...
 

Lort

Banned
Im totally not interested in this and thats why i watched the video and think its so important i post here.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Whilst I see your points, I cannot wholly agree with your points on Ninja Theory. Kung Fu Chaos from when they were Just Add Monsters was a financial failure coming from the people who made titles like Croc and Croc 2 (the same people who had a really good relationship with Sony after Nintendo ditched their vision for Yoshi 64.) Microsoft wouldn't fund the sequel to Kung Fu Chaos 2 and turned down more funding which could have sent JAM bankrupt all the way back them, but they sold Sony on their vision, which took a lot of time but Sony literally saved them from bankruptcy, After Microsoft turned them down for KFC2 JAM went into administration and the core staff had to remortgage their assets. So in a sense, this is one reason I was so surprised because Microsoft hurt them, probably as bad as they hurt Oddworld Inhabitants. Both thankfully bounced back.

But irrespective of the troubled development, Heavenly Sword laid an amazing foundation for the trilogy that NT originally thought out but not wanting to adopt PSN into the sequel and tone down the development costs for their magnum opus follow up they had to part ways with Sony. Enslaved was a failure but they found success when they were headhunted by Capcom and earned good money in royalties from DmC, which I still think was an excellent game. However DmC sold drastically better on PS3, Fightback was just dipping their toes into the water in the iOS world and Dexed never saw release on the XBOX but did on PS4. Admittedly on Windows also but the point still stands. No XBOX port. Then Hellblade was announced by Sony and they put a great deal of effort into advertising it also. I remember the page layout on the PlayStation store when it launched.

It was also a very profitable project for them. They were in profit at the initial sales of 500,000 - never mind when it passed the 1 million marker.

Honestly I would have preferred to see them stay independent but I believe like Super Massive, they would have thrived third party. Hell, I would have let them make DmC 2. Looking at the history, saving them from bankruptcy, the relationship they must have had to deliver products to the PlayStation platform both exclusive and timed, there was a good relationship there. Joining Microsoft meant giving that up. I just hope they don't regret it. I thought Lionhead would never close down but hey ho...
As for Heavenly Sword.
Sony actively interfered with the game's development, diminishing the team's creative freedom It pressured them to produce a game that "fit in more with what a standard action-adventure video game should be". Many features were removed from the game during the final production stages to meet project deadlines.
However, sales did not meet expectations, and the title did not break even.
Atleast, Microsoft did not actively interfere with Kung Fu Chaos development.
I don't know why people keep mentioning Lionhead when Sony has actually killed more studios.
989 Studios (closed in 2005)
Bigbig Studios(closed in 2012)
Contrail(closed in 2000)
Evolution Studios(closed in 2016)
Incognito Entertainment(closed in 2009)
Studio Liverpool(closed in 2012)
Zipper Interactive(closed in 2012)
Guerrilla Cambridge(closed in 2017)
Team Ico(closed in 2011)
 
As for Heavenly Sword.


Atleast, Microsoft did not actively interfere with Kung Fu Chaos development.
I don't know why people keep mentioning Lionhead when Sony has actually killed more studios.
989 Studios (closed in 2005)
Bigbig Studios(closed in 2012)
Contrail(closed in 2000)
Evolution Studios(closed in 2016)
Incognito Entertainment(closed in 2009)
Studio Liverpool(closed in 2012)
Zipper Interactive(closed in 2012)
Guerrilla Cambridge(closed in 2017)
Team Ico(closed in 2011)

To be fair I never started a competition between the two, I simply pointed out that I thought Lionhead were safe as could possibly be. I never thought I'd see them close their doors, though I'm not making a comparison either that Sony should have acquired NT either, honestly I'd have liked them to remain third party but when you make a game for someone with their money they can interfere, it's their right to do so as much as I hate to say it. Again Microsoft did it with Oddworld at the same time they did it to Just Add Monsters. NT survived and was born and Oddworld nearly ended up part of Activision but thankfully are back and thriving.

In fairness the Sony of the arrogant era aren't the same Sony that we know today. The creative freedom they have to Ready at Dawn, Super Massive and Quantic Dream can't be spoken more highly of. If NT made heavenly sword today I don't think they would have the same experience, on the flip side the decisions Sony made might have made heavenly sword a more appealing game, we'll never know what the original vision was in fairness. Even today we see this happening. There was a lot of talk of Microsoft interfering with the development of scalebound which partly led to its cancellation.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
To be fair I never started a competition between the two, I simply pointed out that I thought Lionhead were safe as could possibly be. I never thought I'd see them close their doors, though I'm not making a comparison either that Sony should have acquired NT either, honestly I'd have liked them to remain third party but when you make a game for someone with their money they can interfere, it's their right to do so as much as I hate to say it. Again Microsoft did it with Oddworld at the same time they did it to Just Add Monsters. NT survived and was born and Oddworld nearly ended up part of Activision but thankfully are back and thriving.

In fairness the Sony of the arrogant era aren't the same Sony that we know today. The creative freedom they have to Ready at Dawn, Super Massive and Quantic Dream can't be spoken more highly of. If NT made heavenly sword today I don't think they would have the same experience, on the flip side the decisions Sony made might have made heavenly sword a more appealing game, we'll never know what the original vision was in fairness. Even today we see this happening. There was a lot of talk of Microsoft interfering with the development of scalebound which partly led to its cancellation.
Honestly, what is all this Oddworld talk ? I will give you a recent example. Even though, their games sold so much, Sony withhold royalities for thatgamecompany and they are not partnering with Sony anymore.
It is the current Sony that closed Evolution (Driveclub studio) and Guerrilla Cambridge. Microsoft invested a lot in Lionhead before they closed them. Peter Molyneaux is known to run his mouth with stupid ideas that he never delivered.
Platinum Games stated that Scalebound is their fault, no matter how much people speculate online.
The game was 7 years in development, yet they didn't have any substantial progress. Nier:Automata was completed in 2 years and they even made a new custom engine for it(Scalebound was made using Unreal Engine). Knowing, Kamiya's nature he would have roasted Microsoft on twitter, but instead he apologized and later said this
 
This video, I believe is more of a statement of intent than it is a hype project. Microsoft clearly want to take Sony's position in the market and to do so, they need their... well, Naughty Dog. Their studio that they can depend on to create a hit project. The question, if anything, is can these guys pull it off?

It's hard to really creatively push boundaries that nobody else is currently exploring or really delving into a narrative with little to no presence. I just hope it's not too close to Sony IP. I wouldn't want to see Microsoft's Uncharted or InFamous. I'd rather see something new and fresh.

Microsoft have never sold me on XBOX and if they really want to, here is their chance. I mean they're buying up developers who's games I enjoy and have been multi-platform for some time that it better be fucking worth it. Else wise I just stick to playing them on PC. Really makes me wonder why they persist with hardware development these days when I can see Microsoft realistically being the biggest third party developer there could be.
Actually, I think they are looking for their Sony Santa Monica.
 
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