Fable Legends not working out isn't exactly a good reason to completely destroy the studio without giving them a chance or support. Sony spent a ton of money on the PS3 days on MAG, Heavenly Sword, and Lair. They gave them a chance before cutting the partnership, and in MAG's case, closing the studio. I guess you could say they gave Fable Legends a chance because it was played in beta phase, but they definitely did not support them well enough.
Scalebound and Phantom Dust is just a waste. Microsoft is willing to throw away billion dollar investments (The Kin phone, Windows Phone, etc) that money shouldn't be that big of an issue. If Sony was okay investing in projects like Lair or Heavenly Sword, then Microsoft should be too now that they're playing catch up. It's not about the money. It's about just having more games no matter the cost. They have to flip the mentality of the current player base that Xbox actually has a lot more games than we think it does because it currently doesn't.
Obviously, Microsoft isn't going to tell us exactly how much has sold or how many people are playing right now. All they have is that 2 million player announcement, fastest selling whatever, but without concrete details of whether it was gamepass or full price, or how many people are still playing because that is important for them now that Microtransactions are coming into play. They haven't said anything since the launch period, and, for me, the omission of the break down and actual sales numbers means the game done poorly. It's like when Microsoft and Insomniac said they are happy with Sunset Overdrive sales and left it at that when it obviously bombed. If the game did bonkers well, then they would have came out, like God of War, saying it sold millions.
It's also not gut instinct because a game like this should be getting a lot of viewers on Twitch. It's only got about a thousand viewers. I consider this game pretty similar to the idea around DayZ, where the fun really comes when there are player encounters, but even DayZ has 30k viewers right now. Online games thrive on active communities, more so for PVP oriented games, and just doing a quick google on some recent feedback, I just see complaints about the lack of players.
In terms of money, Microsoft can take way more risks than Sony. They take risks all the time on stupid things. Buy Nokia for gazillions and then shut them down. In terms of gaming related stuff, the Kinect was an utter failure, and I'm pretty sure Hololens is going to the ground. They just need to make smart investments in their risk, which Sony has been able to do many times.
(i'm not buying a console just for Ori).
