Contraband Is A Co-Op Xbox Exclusive Coming From The Just Cause Team

So all of these "acquisitions" that Jeff Grubb was going on about for the past month ended up being exclusive partnerships.

Has Jeff EVER been right with one of his predictions?

Not that I am complaining he is wrong though. I DO NOT want Microsoft owning IOI. I own the hitman games on ps5 and didn't want to have to switch to Xbox if they released a 4th entry in the world of assassination.

If this plays anything like smugglers run I’m all in.

@torne plenty of times, and these acquisitions are still likely to happen.

Jeff actually said from the start that there would be no acquisition talks on this presentation, but he leapt hearing noise about some closing soon and supposedly being announced. Last show he did before E3 he said if they decided to announce an acquisition in the show, it was going to be a very last minute change.

These acquisitions might still happen, and this is the second Xbox exclusive coming from Avalanche, first being Second Extinction, so it does seem they are being very tight at the moment.

It’s unlikely there is going to be any more Hitman games from IOI. Even if MS acquired IOI was acquired, Hitman IP still belongs to Square Enix (as you might have seen in SE event, they making another, think mobile, game.)

@Tharsman Hitman actually is not owned by Square.

IOI said when they broke off that they retained the rights to the hitman name. Square makes mobile games and IOI don't. There was already a Hitman sniper on mobile so Square most likely went to IOI and said hey can we do this since we let you keep the rights, or it was part of their break up.

Also IOI have been making hitman games for the past 20+ years. Hitman will be back for certain. Whether it's another part of the world of assassination or a new game entirely we will see more of hitman.

That being said as someone who owns all 3 consoles I don't like the idea of snatching up developers. There is something said about being able to nurture and build talent. Buying up already established developers seems like cheating to me.

If a developer is struggling and you see potential for sure by all means help them out. But this whole buying large companies that were already successful seems gross to me.

@Tharsman Jeff also talked ad nauseum about the WB Games devs being acquired by Microsoft but we pretty much know for sure that's probably never happening now thanks to the announcement of Discovery and WarnerMedia merging in mid-2022

There might be time to slip in a last minute deal but a restructuring is already being planned to accomodate the change based on reports from Hollywood trades like Variety and THR specifically for the WB Pictures and HBO Max arm of WM

@torne even large “successful” companies can struggle. Zenimax was not doing well, at all. It was obvious with all the cash grab tactics they were deploying on the last few years.

Independent single studios are always running the risk of running out of money overnight. Has happened way too many times, and many of the studios that have been acquired recently have spoken about how they finally can stop worrying about money and star just making games.

Double fine was getting ready to cut a ton of content (boss fights) from Psychonauts 2 or run the risk of running out of cash before shipping the game, for example.

For the most part, most large-yet-indie studios spend way too many resources securing and managing funding. Some studios do appreciate the independent (like Bungie, for now anyways) but others will be very happy to accept a good offer from a company they feel will give them freedom to create.

It’s not like Xbox forced any of these studios to take the money.

@TheFrenchiestFry the restructuring is what makes an acquisition of single studios a lot more likely to happen. Might not happen still, but during this stage, negotiating single-studio acquisitions is more likely than the previous desire of ATT to just sell off all studios together for 4.5 billion. There was a lot of bloat on that package that would not had benefited Microsoft.

@Tharsman WB Games was about to be spun off and sold to another company and I believe both EA and Microsoft were in the bidding at one point but if anything I don't view the Discovery merger as a liklier sign of it happening again

They also have a lot of multiplatform content in development in comparison to where Bethesda was when Microsoft acquired them, and being part of WarnerMedia I doubt that means they need the money either. Besides it would also seriously complicate things if WB Games was seperated from WarnerMedia and sold to Microsoft since then that would leave the fate of stuff like Wizarding World or DC Comics games completely up in the air as well since that's owned by the conglomerate and not them

@TheFrenchiestFry what i aggregated from various “insiders” (and the fact that Ms proved they willing to throw 7.5 billion at Zenimax) is that no one was going to outbid Microsoft.

Microsoft simply did not see enough value to justify that huge investment, since they would had walked away with zero IP ownership, and even existing back catalog potentially controlled by WB.

Every acquisition so far has come with at least some back catalog that strengthens GamePass without any shackles. It is possible that only one IP was in the table on the acquisition, Mortal Kombat, minus movie rights.

If there is a chance for individual studio negotiations, though, MS could use a fighting game developer even if Mortal Kombat was not part of the deal, and Rocksteady has proven a solid enough studio to work on anything MS wanted them to. Plus it’s not like MS is entirely uninterested on licensing IPs for new games, there is talk about The Coalition, I think, doing a Star Wars game (that would certainly be Xbox/PC/XCloud exclusive.)

This is why I see it being more likely, not saying it’s certain to happen, just more likely.

Note the current rumor is only about Rocksteady and Netherealms, not Telltales nor the studio working on Harry Potter.

I wonder what this'll be in the end. Avalanche is a very uneven studio - even just looking at the Just Cause games, there are good and bad games. For every Mad Max they do that's well-received, they have a Generation Zero or a Rage 2 that's a disappointment.

I hope this feels different than what they've done before. I was trying to pin down a tone for it when I was watching the trailer and at some point I was wondering if it was gonna be, like, "Bonnie & Clyde" style? Which would be dope - something like the cancelled Faith and a .45. No one does that kind of setting! But as it went on I was like, "Nah this feels like old-timey Cuba or something?" so I guess that's what it's going for?

At any rate, I hope they focus on vehicles again, and I hope it's not an FPS because they're 0-2 there. Their on-foot action is always a bit too loose or flat-out janky. Mad Max was their most solid game that I've played, but the star of that game was the vehicle combat, not the on-foot stuff. So hopefully when they say this has a focus on heists, they're going to pull off some old-timey Fast & Furious stuff. Imagine that ridiculous Fast 5 Safe Chase, but with colorful Ford Fairlanes and Chevy Bel Airs cruising through the streets of an off-brand Havana-inspired city of their fictional country.... if that's what this game turns out to be, I'm sold, lol.