IllusiveMan

I certainly wouldn’t call a collab and some speculation a “resurgence” at all.

Not continue dying would be nice.

Honestly given how things turned out lately it’s smart to be already securing a position if Microsoft decides to cut more jobs at Xbox (including hers) whether in 3, 6, 9, 12 or more months.

@Kaloudz I think it’s all because of expectations, for the first game it was a new concept, no one knew what to expect and it delivered a singular experience compared to the rest of the market, for the second one Xbox had been hyping it since 2019 announcing the game alongside the Series X and many people (me included) thought the game was going to be more action focused and essentially the game to have a Series X for, when it finally arrived, after 5 years of wait, it ended up being more of the same as the first game but without the novelty factor hence the lower score even though both games are very similar.

So this is how the very first franchise Xbox made from the ground up reached the end…

It’s particularly sad as not even Halo can be called a home grown IP like Forza Motorsport was.

It was expected given last month’s decimation, nonetheless disappointing and worrying for every single game development going on at Microsoft that isn’t Call of Duty, Minecraft or other juggernauts (and even their teams aren’t safe).

I honestly thought it was all Arrowhead, but this shows an intent from Sony to bring over at least some few games, time will tell if heavy hitters like Spider-Man or God of War end up being on Xbox but certainly I wouldn’t bet against it.

This is pretty much the “only 4 games” phase, at least Sony hasn’t gone lying on record to say it’s the only game Xbox will get…

At this point I wish they’d just attempt to sell consoles, it’s been months since I haven’t seen an available Series X, and the remaining Series S are somehow priced higher than the PS5 digital edition (outside of the US).

This has the feeling of an obituary for Rare, its employees and all those IPs that will never see the light of day again, if Sea of Thieves hadn’t grown to be the success it is today the studio would have 100% been closed already.

I don’t think any port or expansion will make me change my mind about this being one of the most dull, flat, boring and wasted potential games I’ve ever played.

Best revenue ever for MS Gaming and yet they decimated all gaming divisions a few weeks ago smh…

One thing is clear, as long as he’s the head of Microsoft every division there is going to become more sh1tty, for all the (deserved) crap that Phil gets the one decimating the brand is this bald MF.

All they needed was more content, the campaign was fine but it had an open ending so it’s baffling they never made DLC, multiplayer tho was basically in a beta for a whole year, but even then it was my most played game for 2022 as the gameplay was nailed, I’ll die on my hill saying that it’s the best feeling Halo to this day but between the stumbles at launch (Craig…) and the lack of content for a looong time never gave the fantastic gameplay hiding underneath a chance.

@Millionski Yeah I just made a comment there criticizing the author for his double standards, you keep flip flopping between being critical or excusing/defending a corporation, I’m critical of both because I own both and I want both to compete, not one to dwindle into irrelevance and the other to abuse its position and pursue bad ideas.

@Millionski So you’ve gone back to tribalism where it doesn’t matter all the BS that Microsoft is doing because Sony has had their own missteps? Smh.

And just to be clear I’ve been criticizing Sony’s live service BS since the very beginning and it already costed half of the PS5 catalogue, and yet that doesn’t excuse the decimation at Microsoft Gaming every 3-6 months.

LMFAO at least they realized they were being too greedy, now can they revert closing studios and cancelling games?

I feel you must include now a list of Fallen Studios/Projects for the games Microsoft has cancelled and will cancel in the future.

Only possible thanks to the power of… PS5?

@Coletrain Just because it isn’t a AAA game doesn’t mean there isn’t any cost to porting the game, we don’t know, perhaps they just have bad blood towards Microsoft now lol

@Coletrain We all know those conditions, that most people with Xbox console just don’t buy games and the whole platform seems to be winding down, for an indie dev like Moon Studios I can understand it as they might not make enough money back to cover the costs of porting the game, it’s really as simple as that.

And they still want us to buy games and stuff from the Microsoft Store? Gtfo…

I haven’t spent a single cent since the “only 4 games” lie, this just reaffirms my stance, I profoundly regret the hundreds of games I bought there over the years, I know I’ll have to rebuild my entire library elsewhere.

Honestly it must be so demoralizing to anyone currently working at Microsoft given that:

• If you deliver a good game, you’re out.
• If you deliver a bad game, you’re out.
• If you deliver a commercial flop, you’re out.
• If you deliver a millionaire success, you’re out.
• If you take your time cooking a good game, you’re out.
• If you rush a bad game to market, you’re out.

@Stoned_Patrol I clearly said for the future as we’re already seeing it with both Gears and Outer Worlds 2, more first-party multiplatform releases launching day one everywhere including Game Pass Ultimate and less third-party releases, and I know we just had Expedition 33 but having been subscribed to Game Pass almost since day one in 2018 it’s clear less third-party games are coming to the service.

Keeper is the only one I’m excited about, might try Ninja Gaiden 4 though I haven’t played the second one in Game Pass.

After trying several hours with Avowed I just realized Obsidian RPGs are not for me and for CoD I won’t bother deleting 200 GB to install a 6 hour sloppy campaign.

Again I think this device will further damage the brand with insanely expensive hardware and not delivering our actual Xbox library on it, they keep marketing it as “taking our library on the go” and said library is restricted to Play Anywhere titles which is not even 10% of my owned library, you’re better off getting a Series X and a Switch 2 for less than the Ally X lmao.

I feel this is the long-term future of Game Pass, just dropping whatever is being ported to PS5 maybe alongside some indies.

I’m very excited to play it but I have to say I’m TERRIFIED about the future of this studio in particular, once they ship the game they’re a perfect candidate for Microsoft in the next round of layoffs before they begin work on their next game, being a studio that is a piece of art but has never really had big financial success if any.

The most boring game I’ve managed to play, even got early access but I spent 2 months just to finish the game and the best part was certainly the ending, I don’t know how Bethesda could fumble this so badly, it had the potential to be the next big space saga after Mass Effect and ended up being not even close and the worst BGS game to this date.

Back then we all thought Microsoft couldn’t make Activision even worse… and we were so wrong.
This acquisition hasn’t been good for anyone besides Bobby Kotick who got his golden parachute.

• We’ve only seen 2-3 games from Activision-Blizzard and some few more in Game Pass but not even close to the full slate.
• Developers are much worse with games cancelled at Blizzard and talent leaving, CoD studios being hit even when they were untouchable back when ABK was independent, even King which is a money printer has been hit with 15-20% staff reduction.
• Many publishers took a step back from Game Pass once the acquisition was completed.
• Multiplatform pivot was pushed to both recoup the acquisition cost and because they saw from ABK’s financials just how much money is made by selling games on PlayStation.
• Microsoft now apparently only wants games that have CoD revenue and that’s just impossible, chasing that they’ll end up closing dozens of studios.

@Soup-Rules I mean just look how some of them reacted to the news Helldivers 2 is coming to Xbox, they were fuming out of anger lmao starting with Sammy, the main author of Push Square who never misses the chance to throw shade at Xbox (sometimes deservedly so).

They’re so focused on cheerleading their brand they completely miss or ignore how Sony actively abuses of their dominant position and it could get much worse if MS exits the gaming market which seems to be what they want 🤦🏻‍♂️

Even Jez Corden has snapped out of the Microsoft cheerleading but Tom Warren insists everything is fine lmao

I honestly doubt we will hear from this franchise ever again, and same goes for half the IPs Microsoft owns.

@Coletrain Just read it and he nailed the criticism towards current Microsoft, Xbox isn’t the only division that Microsoft is making more sh1tty, the whole company is, they’re so directionless and obsessed with AI than even Office isn’t called Office anymore, they’re so stupid that they might rename Xbox to “Gaming Copilot”.

Yet. Could get canned in the next Microsoft pivot alongside half of Xbox Game Studios.

Here’s the Xbox defense force yet again trying to justify almost closing the only Xbox OG studio that’s left, yes the last Forza Motorsport fell short but throughout 20 years they delivered consistently good games, now it takes just one miss to be in the chopping block no matter the legacy you have as a studio, literally no studio is safe at Microsoft Gaming.

@Questionable_Duck If you want to believe that I respect it but don’t be too disappointed if a Sony game you want never gets announced for Xbox, I do think that live-services may be the exception to the rule since Sony has lost billions into that failed strategy and those games depend on player counts, releasing on all platforms is the best move specially for those games’ communities but Sony can be incredibly petty (just look how they attempted to force PSN into it or restricting all PS games in several regions at Steam where no PSN is available) in any case for now Helldivers 2 on Xbox is great news for everyone.

No, and as a journalist it’s irresponsible to set that expectation, this was a very particular situation, Arrowhead is not owned by Sony and their team pushed to be on Xbox and every platform since the beginning, Sony caved because it’s the only successful live-service game they have amidst failures and cancellations and they can use a boost since player count continues to drop.

Just like another particular situation when MLB released on Xbox, it didn’t result in God of War or TLOU coming to Xbox which was theorized back then and today’s news don’t take us a step closer to that at all. I understand fans need to cope after yesterday’s news, but if you expect more Sony games to come over you’re going to be disappointed.

@Balaam_ Lmao 2 of them have already said exactly that

It’s honestly great news, but it isn’t what people think it is, Arrowhead, the developer that isn’t owned by Sony pushed for the game to launch everywhere since the very beginning and it seems Sony finally caved and decided it’s worth seeking as much audience as possible for their only successful live-service game as player count continues to drop and amidst their other failures with live-services, point is don’t expect to see God of War or Spider-Man on Xbox anytime soon or ever.

@BAMozzy I’d buy into the narrative that layoffs are because of corporate overlap if these were the first time it happened, it’s the third mass layoffs since they acquired Activision-Blizzard, and the sixth since ZeniMax.

Not to mention the closure of Tango, Arkane Austin, a new studio at Blizzard and today’s news, the countless IPs they bought are worthless if they don’t nurture them, how can you excuse studio closures and talented industry veterans leaving as overlap in publishing or other corporate structure?

No point defending and excusing this BS with hollow arguments.

Lmao sorry but it’s so funny to read “they have got to run a business” when Microsoft spent nearly 100 billion dollars in game studios and every single quarter they beat their own record with billions of dollars in profit, and yes every corporation in the world has layoffs but the fourth time in less than 2 years? It’s just ridiculous at this rate.

Multi platform pivot was supposed to let Microsoft Gaming thrive as a publisher, but by shutting down studios, forcing talent to leave and the ones who stay facing mass layoffs every 6 months is so stupid, shortsighted and frustrating. They’re in such a rush to burn down the brand even faster than Windows Phone.

@NishimuraX The latest one is “they gotta run a business” as if MS didn’t spent billions acquiring all those studios and they were reporting losses each quarter…

@Kaloudz You’re again spinning your argument that it makes sense closing studios and canceling games because those studios make no money, avoiding answering why did MS spent billions to buy them in the first place (or showing vaporware gameplay), you say you still feel good about the future and let me ask you, after the last couple of years what will it take for it to be otherwise? Cancelling Clockwork Revolution? Closing Turn 10? (Laid off half the staff today btw) Cancelling first-party hardware? Closing Ninja Theory, Double Fine, Compulsion and half the Xbox Game Studios that make no money? Because I honestly see all those as a real possibility.

I truly respect your opinion and your trust in Microsoft’s decisions but blind positivity can be very toxic for yourself, don’t spend your time and money spinning trying to make sense on this bs.

This MF should’ve lost his job a loooong time ago instead of the thousands of people they spent billions into hiring by “spending Sony out of business” per his leaked emails.

@Kaloudz You’re trying to make it seem that it isn’t so bad because it was expected as layoffs were rumored since last week but respectfully you’re fooling yourself, many studios indeed have been mismanaged but whose fault is that? It’s clear now with so many studios that it’s Microsoft’s.

Now if they’re not in the business to break even why did they buy studios like Ninja Theory or Double Fine? I love their games but I really doubt ‘Keeper’ is going to even break even and I now fear for the future of the studio.
Also, all this recent multi platform pivot stemmed from the idea that studios needed more revenue, but now it seems they won’t even give them a chance?

It’s pivot after pivot after pivot, everything just highlights that there’s no strategy or even a long term vision for Xbox and more importantly for all the studios and the talent they spent billions into buying and now they’ve now just laid off, studios don’t work without talent, for me the big red flag that made me distrust Microsoft/Xbox was the closure of Tango, it was so insulting having the first great Xbox game in years only to strip away the exclusivity to “foster the IP” and then close the studio, and today they’ve done it again, showing solid but vaporware “gameplay” of a game 12 months ago only to cancel it, reminds me of Scalebound but worse since this was a first-party studio and will no longer exist.

@Kaloudz You don’t have to excuse them for everything, I see you’ve been trying to put a positive spin to today’s news but this has been yet another brutal day for Xbox.

I honestly feel way past the point of trying to excuse them or even finding legitimate reasons for their actions, yes games are expensive to make but Microsoft is quite literally the wealthiest company on earth, plus the “gameplay” they showed just last year wasn’t even real, everything around Microsoft/Xbox these days are deceptions, broken promises and disappointment after disappointment.

I swear Microsoft is so pathetic, the only studio they didn’t buy ended up being closed before shipping one game, plus that means the demo we saw on last year’s showcase was nothing more than vaporware.

They really did buy half the industry just to lay it off, and I know layoffs happen everywhere but it’s the fourth time in a couple of years that Microsoft does this and particularly with MS Gaming/Xbox.

@themightyant But why do Xbox owners had to wait until the game was ported to PS5 to get this enhancements? That’s the main issue for me and it’s not the first time it’s happened, I understand every game will be more polished after time but I’m sure they could’ve delivered this patch months or weeks after the game launched, not after 15 months only to line it up with the PS5 port.

I know it’s ‘normal’ now to have Xbox games releasing on PS5, but do they really need to treat every PS5 port as the definitive version? It makes it feel like people who bought it on Xbox or played through Game Pass were little more than beta testers…