Ori Developer Moon Studios Teases Its Next Game Is About Humans

Phil needs to get the checkbook out and lock this down as an Xbox exclusive asap

He should probably just buy the studio outright.

@HollowSpectre @Tarps

I agree with both of you. And while the two Ori games were not my kind of games (brutally difficult platformers/Metroidvania style), people love them & they are of very high quality. Ori 2 releasing in a ridiculously buggy state was unacceptable though.

But everything I have heard is that Moon Studios wants to remain independent. So Phil keeping their games, in house, by the way of 2nd party deals would be very smart.

If buying them outright may not be in the cards, keeping their games exclusive to Xbox & PC (in other words, off PlayStation) would be a win.

I'm always skeptical when I read or hear developers say things such as wanting to push a game genre far beyond what players have experienced so far. Innovation in and of itself is obviously never a bad thing, but statements like that give me a definite Peter Molyneux vibe, and that is NOT a good thing, because he practically never delivered on his overzealous promises...

@ThanosReXXX
Yes, but this isn't Molyneux talking, and Moon Studios has delivered two genre defining games in a row. They've earned our trust.

@gingataisen I'm not saying they're the same as Molyneux, I'm just getting that vibe of "we want to do something spectacular, never before seen in this specific genre".

There's simply never been a game EVER, at least not so far, that has completely delivered on such a promise, and especially since they're a rather small company, that's a BIG promise to make, so some skepticism is definitely warranted, whether they've already made two good games or not.

@gingataisen Genre-defining games? You're not talking about those by-the-numbers Ori games are you?

I’m all for this the Ori series is without question my favorite games on Xbox One.

@ThanosReXXX
EVER? Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, Untitled Goose Game and Creature Under the Well come to mind. The first two are their own genres. UGG is impossible to classify.

@ShaiHulud
By who's numbers? Hollow Knight? Dead Cells? Metroid? Symphony? Pretty good numbers. 😎

@gingataisen Those numbers are pretty good, I'll give ya that 😄 It didn't do anything for me though, besides getting a bit annoyed about the cuteness-appeal. I'm aware that lots of people liked it, so more power to them!

@gingataisen Impossible to classify maybe, but quite a small game, so not all too hard to deliver on a promise. Games where people were promised to be completely free to create their own world or become god, without ANY boundaries (such as promised by Peter Molyneux) have literally NEVER been realized up til now.

Every open world game in existence has at some point been broken by skilled players, who managed to find, and break through their limits. The GTA games come to mind as the most obvious example of that.

All the games you mentioned have limits or borders of some kind. You can argue all you want, but my point stands, and it is valid.

Let them first make this supposedly revolutionary game, and THEN we'll see if they made good on their promise. Just because they made a couple of pretty good side scrolling adventures, doesn't mean they can successfully create some completely new kind of RPG that's going to revolutionize that genre, so we're not just going to trust them because of results of the past.

@ThanosReXXX
"Just because they made a couple of pretty good side scrolling adventures, doesn't mean they can successfully create some completely new kind of RPG that's going to revolutionize that genre,..."

It's certainly no reason to believe they can't.

"...so we're not just going to trust them because of results of the past."

On what grounds then, can they (or anybody else, for that matter) earn your trust? Sounds like your mind's already been made up.

@gingataisen On the contrary: my mind is quite open. Already trusting them with no proof that they can is actually the "already made my mind up" option, so you've got it backwards...

An RPG, especially one that is supposedly going to offer some genre-changing, revolutionary features is quite a bit more complicated and/or bigger than a side scrolling platformer, no matter how good it is, so even though I'm not saying that they can't do it, there's still plenty of reasons to at the very least have some healthy skepticism about it.

And I say this as a fan of the Ori games myself, because I simply LOVE these games. They have great stories, and they look pretty damn good as well. Also loving the sound and music.

It's pretty simple, though: just because you can build a fancy looking apartment or studio, doesn't mean you can also design a castle, or perhaps I should say an amusement park, to signify how different one is to the other.

That's why I said "let them prove it first". It sounds good, and interesting as well, but it's such a totally different genre that they're now going to try and tackle, and on top of switching to a completely different type of game, they're also trying to do something completely new with it.

So, the logical thing to do is to take a wait and see approach, which is still VERY much open-minded. And a lot more realistic than "I'm certain they can do it, because their other two games in a completely different genre were also good"...

It's not like I'm already dismissing them. If that's what you got from my previous comments, then you've completely misinterpreted me.

As they say: "the proof is in the pudding", which in this case is the RPG game itself, so as long as there's no footage or gameplay to be seen, it's all but impossible to judge if it will be good or not. And judging them on past performances is never a good practice. You're only as good as your next race...

Anyway, no offense meant, but I am hoping that you're now finally getting the point I've been making all along, seeing as otherwise, it's pretty useless to continue, because I'd just be repeating all the points that I've made so far.

@ThanosReXXX
"On the contrary: my mind is quite open. Already trusting them with no proof that they can is actually the "already made my mind up" option, so you've got it backwards... "

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Just because they haven't made an RPG, doesn't mean they can't. They are very capable devs. Same with Playground. I have no reason to believe they would do a poor job with Fable, just because they've only been involved with Forza.

Edit: I've always been a glass half-full kind of person. Maybe that's why.

@gingataisen Implying that I'm a glass half-empty person, which couldn't be further from the truth...

I do have to repeat that I've already said that I'm NOT saying that they can't, I'm just more cautious with my expectations, so trusting them for the full 100 percent is just not realistic in my view.

There's a saying in my line of work (sales & marketing): trust is good, control is better, meaning what I've been saying all along. Just because they did good so far, there's absolutely no guarantee that they're going to pull off something new equally well. That's just a fact of life.

It's perfectly fine to be cautious with expectations. Setting them too high or too positive might get you disappointed in the end. I'm more than willing to have them pleasantly surprise me, and I'm hoping they do, but until then, I'm not going to be overly enthusiastic.

Anyway, at the end of the day, it's just opinions, and ours differ, which is perfectly fine, long as we can still have a civil conversation about it, which I think we've succeeded in doing.

And besides: a world where everybody always agrees would be infinitely boring...