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USGamer | Revisiting Xbox E3 2014: Remembering All The Games That Died
- Thread starter benny_a
- Start date
wapplew
Member
2014 was a unique case. They have to went from TV,TV,TV to game, game, game in short period.
Must be greenlit a lot projects without taking deep consideration.
uncledonnie
Banned
Fair enough, but honestly for a transitional year with such a major leadership shakeup, it's not terribly surprising (to me anyway) that things didn't all go as planned. Sometimes you have to take steps backward to move forward.
I think a part of the problem is announcing games multiple year in advance before its even remotely ready. Thats not just MS, but everyone.
Like Cyberpunk as an example.
Well Uncle Phil wasn't wrong. It only just begun!
Is this supposed to be a mic drop?
SEGAvangelist
Member
Some inaccuracies in this article. The E3 conference for 2013 wasn't a general entertainment focused event as it was full of games. The XB1 reveal in 2013 was certainly entertainment focused and will go down as possibly the worst game conference of all time.
Also, E3 2014 wasn't the first announcement of Fable Legends. That came at Gamescom in 2013.
Other than that, the writer's points still remain. While hardware and features have been solid under Phil (Xbox One S and Backwards Compatibility), he isn't doing a good job with his promise of "games games games," and MS Studios is very weak these days.
That's kind of ridiculous to just compare one year. Publishers have up and down years just like anyone else. Still, as I replied earlier in this post, I'm not pleased with Phil's management of MS Studios.
Also, E3 2014 wasn't the first announcement of Fable Legends. That came at Gamescom in 2013.
Other than that, the writer's points still remain. While hardware and features have been solid under Phil (Xbox One S and Backwards Compatibility), he isn't doing a good job with his promise of "games games games," and MS Studios is very weak these days.
That's kind of ridiculous to just compare one year. Publishers have up and down years just like anyone else. Still, as I replied earlier in this post, I'm not pleased with Phil's management of MS Studios.
It's terrible, and yeah, MS is not alone in that and probably not the worst offender.
Well .. you'd think greenlighting a game by Kamiya/Platinum is a no-brainer. Another Fable and a Halo Collection would be as well .. considering how well made some of the other collections have been.
breveglieri
Banned
Hexa
Member
As far as I know, none of Sony's were canceled. Rather, when was the last time Sony canceled a game that was officially announced? I genuinely can't remember any.
justsomeguy
Member
That is a very interesting article.
Maybe it's just me but I have no problem announcing projects way out in advance as long as you have something in the mean time.
The movie industry does this all the time and it's not an issue. I know every Marvel movie coming out from now till like 2020 but that doesn't stop me from enjoying what's coming out in 2017.
I'm gonna say that movie and games and their production is not the same.
Kilau
Member
I don't know that a movie franchise roadmap is exactly comparable but also in general MS had been really good about not announcing games too far in advance.
My reason for disliking announcing games so far in advance is that games are very much moving targets.
So my idea is that the closer to release you show off your game for the first time the closer the final game will to that marketing material.
While I don't go nuts about downgrades I still think this is good.
Crazy Diamond
Member
How a game like MCC, a huge entry in a flagship brand for Microsoft gaming, makes it out the door in the condition it was in, blows my mind every time its existence is mentioned. I was overwhelmed with excitement when the collection was announced, because I just knew that friends and family on Xbox would be picking this up ...then those reviews came out.
I'm not opposed to giving Microsoft another chance to win me over. I've had quite a bit of enjoyment with their consoles before. But they go out of their way to lose me. Unless they say "Check under your seats now!", there's really nothing for me to get excited about from them at E3. At least until they prove to me that they are able to deliver on some of these big promises they keep making. They announce these games early, like Scalebound and Phantom Dust, to prove their steps toward diversifying their game catalog, then expect to just live off of those announcements as if they have no intention of ever actually releasing the games themselves. I know that isn't entirely the case, but that's how it feels when you see these games that don't make it out the door, or in some cases, not even come close.
Someone needs to make a Space Jam remix of the 2014 conference because the only thing they dropped was the ball.
I'm not opposed to giving Microsoft another chance to win me over. I've had quite a bit of enjoyment with their consoles before. But they go out of their way to lose me. Unless they say "Check under your seats now!", there's really nothing for me to get excited about from them at E3. At least until they prove to me that they are able to deliver on some of these big promises they keep making. They announce these games early, like Scalebound and Phantom Dust, to prove their steps toward diversifying their game catalog, then expect to just live off of those announcements as if they have no intention of ever actually releasing the games themselves. I know that isn't entirely the case, but that's how it feels when you see these games that don't make it out the door, or in some cases, not even come close.
Someone needs to make a Space Jam remix of the 2014 conference because the only thing they dropped was the ball.
I am trying to think if Sony has cancelled a game this generation. I mean, some of them were disappointing, but they still came out (or will) in the end.
wapplew
Member
Walk away from Rime, What remains of Edith Finch and Wattam.
SSM Stig's project cancelled behind the scene with some layoff.
Movie production can be just as tremulous and game production. Just take Mad Max Fury Road as an example
LiveFromKyoto
Member
666 retweets.
Explains everything.
Nothing you mention matches the question though...
so zero
yes but one could argue that game development is more likely to become tremulous than movie production
Not the same thing is it?
I know this stuff happens all of time Sony did it with the PS3 with Eight Days and Getaway 3
Rime is no longer exclusive. Neither is Edith Finch. Stig's project was never announced (I don't believe).
Projects like Deep Down are still in dev. No Man's Sky was a nightmare and that's the only one I think is comparable.
sixteen-bit
Member
*pours one out for Scalebound and PD*
Ahh Deep Down! That is definitely the closest to the Scalebound situation.
wapplew
Member
Ya, not in the same league like MS E3 2014. Nothing got cancel, just change publisher.
breveglieri
Banned
The closest thing to a cancelation from Sony is Deep Down, wich is AWOL but not officially dead
intheinbetween
Member
two games cancelled, bad but no a disaster
breveglieri
Banned
Phantom Dust was supposed to be a new game, not just a remaster of the original title
So it counts as cancelation, especially because this "change" sunk the studio
That is a game by Capcom.
It doesn't speak much to the quality of Sony as a publisher. Its inclusion speaks more to the quality of Sony as a marketing partner.
are people arguing Phantom Dust isn't a cancellation? cuz wow if so
Sumio Mondo
Member
Don't know what planet you're living on but MCC was nothing but a disaster.
Air Zombie Meat
Member
So good 4 xbox gamers.
GHG
Member
The denial is strong in some people.
But hey, why call a spade a spade when we can live in a delusional world where everything is ok? Why bother to put more pressure on the Xbox division when you can just tell them they are doing a great job as they fumble about and cancel games left right and center? Personally, I'm just happy the Xbox one S has a 4K Blu Ray player, who needs videogames right guys?
But hey, why call a spade a spade when we can live in a delusional world where everything is ok? Why bother to put more pressure on the Xbox division when you can just tell them they are doing a great job as they fumble about and cancel games left right and center? Personally, I'm just happy the Xbox one S has a 4K Blu Ray player, who needs videogames right guys?
Yeah, the worst offender is Square Enix.
Drama. It's human nature. Regardless of the presence or absence of facts, drama always seems to follow everything. Humans tend to be emotional, which is very often accompanied by irrational behavior. In this case, you have a lot of people invested in the Xbox platform and others that are invested in a competing platform (some folks both). That is going to bring out emotions when something goes not as planned. If interested in reading about how irrational we tend to be, read a book "Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely.
On topic, there is a part of me that appreciates Microsoft's willingness to walk away if it seems like something isn't going to work out. Sometimes the best and hardest decisions are to not move forward with something. There is another part of me that is puzzled by their strategic direction since, in absence of facts, I'm not align with some of the decisions they make (largely around the breadth of experiences they directly invest in and follow through with for their platform). I don't know enough of the details behind any cancelations to know if the decisions were good or not, but time will tell. I look forward to E3 and their product roadmap for the future. That will be more telling and, until then, most of this is unproductive speculation.
EDIT: Also, having spent quite a bit of time in the Fable Legends closed beta, I'm not surprised that it was canceled. The game needed a lot of work yet and was starving for more content. That being said, I don't think the game should have ever gone in that direction; Fable 4 would have been more appropriate.
True. I guess I just wished the video game industry was more releastic with their planning around dates. Measure twice cut once that sort of thing.
USGamer said:
Excellent point.
I've said it before, but Microsoft's unwillingness to invest in Japanese development is going to haunt them right into next-gen. They cannot afford to give an entire market of talent to their direct competitor. I don't know why Microsoft aren't pursuing a lot of smaller games (aka games that they could make exclusive) from Japan, but they need to figure out a way to get those games onto their platform. A niche/smaller game can be a fantastic game, so I think Microsoft should invest in lower profile titles from Japan. Make the Xbox the home for as many Japanese indie games as possible!
Yep. I'm guessing Crackdown 3 will resurface during the Scorpio reveal, as the more powerful hardware will allow them to do the citywide destruction -- locally. Of course, that would go against their entire infinite power of the cloud messaging, but at this point, it's pretty obvious that the power of the cloud was -- much like a number of games they announced at that press conference -- smoke and mirrors designed to fool the public.
Note: The announcement of Scorpio was also another case of smoke and mirrors, only these ones were designed to curtail interest in the PS4 Pro. The Scorpio presentation was a whole plate of buzzwords, camera swoops, and slide transitions without a single piece of evidence. Now I'm confident that Scorpio has evolved from Post-it notes to an actual product, but it was still fascinating to see Microsoft get away with selling a fantasy.
facetheslayer92
Member
But Phil Spencer said he was bringing the "games, games, games" 
This. Crackdown is going to be Scorpio's showpiece.
The way I understand it, both Halo: MCC and Assassin's Creed: Unity were up against an a deadline that they absolutely couldn't push back. They both had hard shipping dates set way in advance and they couldn't be delayed, so they were released in an unfinished state.
#Games,Games,Games #Xbox...
But Phil Spencer said he was bringing the "games, games, games"
He is...
Halo, Gears, and Forza are games.
They just aren't any of the new IP that he kept talking about wanting to cultivate more of.
Wouldn't worry about Below either. I've played it and it is looking amazing (and seemed nearly finished). I'm sure it will be along in good time.I totally forgot about Fable Legends
Man and the still absent Cuphead and Below
man