• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

[Rumour]Microsoft is apparently trying to finalize deals with 3 Studios before E3.

Shin

Banned
We meet again, long time no see :messenger_sunglasses:
Didn't Thurrott/Brad Sams say something along those lines that they were looking to purchase more studios?
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
if they don't get it finalized no huge lose IMO.

they all make mediocre games. probably just trying to buy up studios to make up an impressive number.

at best we'll get new IP from them and well....that could go either way.
 

Geki-D

Banned
Meh, they haven't exactly purchased any remarkable studios yet and it looks like that isn't really set to change.
IO is mediocre?
They're currently having trouble staying afloat, aren't they? Not exactly a good sign your games are high demand, quality products...
 
Last edited:

Shin

Banned
Meh, they haven't exactly purchased any remarkable studios yet and it looks like that isn't really set to change.
They entered the ring too late IMO, by that time Sony had already snatched up a vast amount of talents.
Microsoft needs to go after some bigger fish that's already well established and can self manage instead of the on the fence types trying to survive.
Perhaps cheap to purchase but if they weren't talented to begin with then the purchase will only drain their finances instead of helping them with a healthy catalog.
 
What a BS rumour. 'Trying' to sign studios just so they can say at E3 they got more studios?

MS have still not learnt that just buying studios doesnt lead to success.
 

CyberPanda

Banned
Meh, they haven't exactly purchased any remarkable studios yet and it looks like that isn't really set to change.

They're currently having trouble staying afloat, aren't they? Not exactly a good sign your games are high demand, quality products...
To be fair, a lot of dev studios these days are having trouble staying afloat. And their games have reviewed pretty decent(IO and Relic):

IO interactive average:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/io-interactive

Here are the other two:

Relic Entertainment average:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/relic-entertainment

Asobo:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/asobo-studio (I personally think this studio would be a waste but if MS pays a cheap amount, and with a proper AAA budget maybe they can make something decent?). I personally think they shouldn’t bother with this studio.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
Io are decent.

The other 2? Ehhh. They probably come super cheap, so it is clear as day ms is going for quantity over quality, but still some of those studios are decent to good.
 

Vasto

Member
I will say that I have my eye on A Plague Tale from Asobo. That games looks really good to me.

The studio I want them to pick up is Crytek.
 
Last edited:

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
I mean Asobo looks like a studio i can acquire myself. I see Sony announcing bigger studio acquisitions and some smaller ones. But those bigger studio's have more team, like most of the studio's at WWS already have. You can count those individual teams also.

I'm personally not really impressed about most of those acquisitions Microsoft did.
 
People are just salty their preferred console manufacturer is not making any new waves in the industry. Some fail to realize that content is king, and regardless of what a dev made in the past dosent matter as the budget will now be on a whole other level.
 
Last edited:

demigod

Member
Don’t count on these studios getting AAA budgets. My bet is MS acquiring these studios to churn out AA games for gamepass. What IPs do these studios even own?
 

Codes 208

Member
I have no idea who any of these three are and being at work I don’t have time to google them. Any good games from any of them?
 

Vasto

Member
Microsoft did say they want to have a 1st party AAA game releasing every quarter next gen.
 
Last edited:

CyberPanda

Banned
I mean Asobo looks like a studio i can acquire myself. I see Sony announcing bigger studio acquisitions and some smaller ones. But those bigger studio's have more team, like most of the studio's at WWS already have. You can count those individual teams also.

I'm personally not really impressed about most of those acquisitions Microsoft did.
Ninja Theory - 78% average https://www.metacritic.com/company/ninja-theory
Obsidian - 76% average https://www.metacritic.com/company/obsidian-entertainment
Playground Games - 84% average www.metacritic.com/company/playground-games

These companies are pretty good, and have made some good games. Their overall average is in the ‘geeen’ category on Meta which is considered respectable.


Don’t count on these studios getting AAA budgets. My bet is MS acquiring these studios to churn out AA games for gamepass. What IPs do these studios even own?
I have no idea who any of these three are and being at work I don’t have time to google them. Any good games from any of them?


https://www.neogaf.com/threads/rumo...h-3-studios-before-e3.1476671/#post-254005778
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Meh. While IOI is the best of the three, it seems like Microsoft and Spencer are intent on acquiring every AA mid tier studio on the planet. Outside of Playground Games, all im seeing is quantity instead of quality which due to Game Pass and their need to fill it with content makes sense but not at all what I was hoping for.
 
I really don’t think true studios under Xbox ever lacked talent. They lacked leadership

Xbox was best when they set trends, not when they follow them.

Same goes for PlayStation.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
MS is built to succeed with its knowledge of software, studies available etc. so far they aren’t beholden to those notions
 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Ninja Theory - 78% average https://www.metacritic.com/company/ninja-theory
Obsidian - 76% average https://www.metacritic.com/company/obsidian-entertainment
Playground Games - 84% average www.metacritic.com/company/playground-games

These companies are pretty good, and have made some good games. Their overall average is in the ‘geeen’ category on Meta which is considered respectable.






https://www.neogaf.com/threads/rumo...h-3-studios-before-e3.1476671/#post-254005778

Playground was already sort of first party, so nothing new and exciting.
 

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
If it's true that IOI is indeed intending to join MS, then I guess that means that Hitman will become exclusive to Xbox and PC then?

Hitman on Gamepass would be great if they decide to go back to a episodic nature with the maps. I actually liked how they did that the first go round. It kept me coming back to the game for months whereas with 2 I just blasted through everything and then dropped the game.
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
A clever play from Microsoft. Original content on subscription will be the business model of the future.

Having not-too-expensive mid tier studios will ensure they have a steady stream of content.

At some point they could, just by deciding to do so, make their content available on PlayStation and Nintendo platforms.
 
How much of their E3 conference will they spend listing off all the B and C tier talent they've gobbled up with a logo instead of actually showing impressive or desirable games?

I can see it now: "We are thrilled to announce Asobo has joined the Microsoft Game Studios umbrella!... "
*Cue logo of studio no one has ever heard of and wait for golf claps and one sarcastic woo*

Rinse repeat for twenty minutes.
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
It would be great if IO Interactive was saved by Microsoft after the weak (full price) sales of Hitman 2 (instead of closing down), but on the other hand it'll suck not getting any more of their games for the PS4.
 
Last edited:
lol if Sony doesn't actually step up once they are losing next gen in the eyes of the non-action adventure fanboy . they lost so much studios that made 3rd party games and losing hitman will be a decent hit to them,.
 

angelic

Banned
I want a new phrase as meaningless as console launch exclusive, and a studio without a single actual programmer, but 100 female mentors taking turns in running workshops on self empowerment and vegan pilates.
 
To be fair, a lot of dev studios these days are having trouble staying afloat. And their games have reviewed pretty decent(IO and Relic):

IO interactive average:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/io-interactive

Here are the other two:

Relic Entertainment average:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/relic-entertainment

Asobo:
https://www.metacritic.com/company/asobo-studio (I personally think this studio would be a waste but if MS pays a cheap amount, and with a proper AAA budget maybe they can make something decent?). I personally think they shouldn’t bother with this studio.

IO is a money sink, and Relic is owned by Sega.

Playground was already sort of first party, so nothing new and exciting.

It IS first party.
 
I can confirm one of these studios is Japanese. That's not really much to go on by that's all I've heard.

Likely small mid-sized company, maybe around SNK to Koei level, I doubt they are going to buy a larger development house
 

Grinchy

Banned
Even if they’re not buying the biggest teams with tons of hits, it's still a good thing. The biggest problem MS has is a lack of their own games and a huge lack of variety in the small amount they do have.

Any of the relatively unknown teams they’ve been buying could pump out an unexpected hit in a genre that would give the Xbox an identity back.
 
With the amount of money Microsoft have, whatever problems these studios have are gone. If this is true then i stand firm in my belief that Sony need to step their game up as Microsoft are really money hatting their way to the top. E3 2020 will be a different beast. No fuck up for Microsoft, Sony will have to come out swinging and show they are still the market leaders. Microsoft on the other hand have already had 10 months of little news Sony to step into the lime light. Their intentions are clear that they want to be the best and they have the cash to pay for it. Microsoft do have the infrastructure to sustain a much bigger equallibrium than Sony. I hope this silence isn't going to mean their big reveal will fall on deaf ears as gamers are more interested in a more consistent and vocal Microsoft.
 

mejin

Member
I hope this silence isn't going to mean their big reveal will fall on deaf ears as gamers are more interested in a more consistent and vocal Microsoft.

this is not the reality. sales says otherwise.

gamers are interested in games and sony is the only one giving to them.
 
this is not the reality. sales says otherwise.

gamers are interested in games and sony is the only one giving to them.
Not really, the only reason Sony has this perceived larger release subset is because of the Japanese market, and even then the reality is most are B and C level obscure titles. These look good on a spreasheet but to most people they don't matter all that much and sales volumes show this. Then we come to the enhanced consoles, the Xbox One X with an entire year lead time and lesser Japanese support has managed to surpass Sony's Pro support so for a 4K television user it has more available options.

Not all of this stuff is so black and white.
 

Bryank75

Banned
With the amount of money Microsoft have, whatever problems these studios have are gone. If this is true then i stand firm in my belief that Sony need to step their game up as Microsoft are really money hatting their way to the top. E3 2020 will be a different beast. No fuck up for Microsoft, Sony will have to come out swinging and show they are still the market leaders. Microsoft on the other hand have already had 10 months of little news Sony to step into the lime light. Their intentions are clear that they want to be the best and they have the cash to pay for it. Microsoft do have the infrastructure to sustain a much bigger equallibrium than Sony. I hope this silence isn't going to mean their big reveal will fall on deaf ears as gamers are more interested in a more consistent and vocal Microsoft.
What a joke, money doesn't solve all issues and if they can't make a partnership with Platinum work and constantly have issues with game development , then it is a corporate culture problem.
There hasn't been 1 decent game produced by Xbox this gen outside Cuphead, Ori and Forza. There is no track record and they don't have Epic and Bungie to lean on anymore. Just a bunch of discount studios. I'll beieve them when I see something noteworthy.
 
I think MS has the right strategy here. We just wont see the payoff for maybe 5-10 years.

Sucker Punch was mediocre. Naughty Dog was mediocre. The only way studios evolve past mediocre is if they have a good budget, time to make good games and learn, and they don't break up after 10-15 years. It takes that long for teams to grow and learn and move past mediocre.

Sony had pretty much nothing but mediocre first party games until THIS gen. Took them 4 gens to get it right. Any studios MS acquires now have the chance to be great in a decade if they are nurtured for that long. Nintendo nurtured all their studios for even longer.
 
Last edited:

Vasto

Member
I think MS has the right strategy here. We just wont see the payoff for maybe 5-10 years.

Sucker Punch was mediocre. Naughty Dog was mediocre. The only way studios evolve past mediocre is if they have a good budget, time to make good games and learn, and they don't break up after 10-15 years. It takes that long for teams to grow and learn and move past mediocre.

Sony had pretty much nothing but mediocre first party games until THIS gen. Took them 4 gens to get it right. Any studios MS acquires now have the chance to be great in a decade if they are nurtured for that long. Nintendo nurtured all their studios for even longer.


I remember Ryan Mccaffrey pretty much said the same thing earlier this gen. I just hope it does not 10 years for it to happen. :messenger_ok:
 
Top Bottom