Support NeoGAF

[Bgamer90]

Well they have to keep up the illusion that they aren't internally planning to make a brand new console as early as next year somehow , fluffing themselves with a nice marketing video early in the year during a dry time for new releases is one way to do that.

They would be doing this regardless (whether what you said is true or not) -- companies create new ads for popular products regularly.

 

[gamz]

Well they have to keep up the illusion that they aren't internally planning to make a brand new console as early as next year somehow , fluffing themselves with a nice marketing video early in the year during a dry time for new releases is one way to do that.

In other words they are marketing their products.

 

[Ceadeus]

Very good ad.

Very good system. Can't ask for more.

 

[Ushay]

MS first party, in my opinion, has been very mediocre compared to the standard they set at the beginning of last gen. Halo 5 sold worse, and scored worse than 3. Forza has become NFS releasing every year. Fable has gone pay to win or free to play, I forgot the genre. The Gears Remaster didn't even chart for NPD. Their core franchises are on a downward trajectory and the new ones they're building are being made by third party (Remedy, Platinum, Armature) which is risky because there's no guarantee the studio (or the game) will stay exclusive. MS no longer has that huge US/UK install base to guarantee them sales for basically any game they market out i.e. Tomb Raider. I would not say they are doing very well, they are getting trounced by their competition and they know it.

I agree if you're strictly regarding 1st party efforts only. But my question is, why look at it that way when 2nd party efforts are just as good. MS is well known for hiring 'mercenary' studios for their exclusive games. If we get games like Recore, Scalebound and Crackdown etc I'm all for it if the end product is great.

I do think they need more diversity in their library, like RPGs for example.

 

[IncognitoPanda]

MS first party, in my opinion, has been very mediocre compared to the standard they set at the beginning of last gen. Halo 5 sold worse, and scored worse than 3. Forza has become NFS releasing every year. Fable has gone pay to win or free to play, I forgot the genre. The Gears Remaster didn't even chart for NPD. Their core franchises are on a downward trajectory and the new ones they're building are being made by third party (Remedy, Platinum, Armature) which is risky because there's no guarantee the studio (or the game) will stay exclusive. MS no longer has that huge US/UK install base to guarantee them sales for basically any game they market out i.e. Tomb Raider. I would not say they are doing very well, they are getting trounced by their competition and they know it.

I do agree their output has been mediocre, but you are intentionally only focusing on the negatives.

Halo 3 sold better because it released during Halo's and FPSs hayday, being the trilogy finale of one of the biggest franchises in gaming. Fable hasn't "gone free-to-play", they are simply making one singular installment in the Fable IP that is a MOBA. A franchise may dip into many genres.
GoW: UE charted at NPD, and sold over a million copies, which is very good for a low budget remaster.
Forza Horizon and Motorsport are two different types of racing games simply sharing the Forza name, that all review great.
News flash: Sony and Nintendo also develops exclusive content by third-parties all the time. So was Gears of War, until MS now decided to bring it in house.
MS also owns the IPs for Quantum Break, SCALEBOUND, Cuphead, ReCore, Ori.
And yes, Playstation is trouncing Xbox, but how i that relevant to their first party output? And they may still be doing well even if someone else is doing better.

Tl;dr: I agree that MS's core franchise have lost impact, perhaps even quality, but your reasons for why MS has a mediocre output is all over the place, and it's obvious you're grasping. You may not like Sunset Overdrive, Ori, Ryse, DR3, or any of the core franchises, but it's not all bad. And 2016 is looking great.

 

[Zeta Oni]

The same may end up true for Scalebound, at least based on how Platinum seems to do things, and considering previous games haven't exactly lit up the charts (although the games themselves were fantastic), ownership of the IP might be something that Microsoft may have wanted, and that Platinum may have felt was reasonable for the opportunity to build another big budget title exclusively for one of the major platforms.

Somewhat true, the origins of scalebound go back to after the completion of Bayonetta in 2009. The IP situation is an interesting one, as its a passion project for the team at platinum so giving the rights away seems contrary, but as it turns out Microsoft was one of the only devs willing to fund a AAA release based on a concept from Platinum (no doubt due to the sales of other platinum games). So currently with scalebound we see an odd combination of appealing to larger market than typical platinum offerings while trying to retain the identity of a P* game.

Taking this opportunity to shamelessly recommend anyone interested in the game to read up on it in my breakdown thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1174692&highlight=