@themightyant There many reasons why I think S is doing well. First is cost. It is the cheapest way to get a powerful console. Second, I think would be TVs. Most smaller TVs are only HD, so there is not much sense buying an X if your TV is only HD and you intend to keep it that way. Finally, as a secondary console. If you primarily game on PS or Switch and decide to buy an XB secondary console to play some of the exclusive games, you probably see S as a cheap way to do that.
Personally, I bought an S for my one and only HD TV. No need to have an X when an S will do on a secondary gaming TV.
Games are rolling out pretty consistently and are from a variety of genres. I think 2024 is doing fine.
For XB itself I think they are doing fine as well. Some new console offerings coming, a new IP before the end of the year, Hellblade II already released, and constant support for live service games such as Flight Simulator, Elder Scrolls, Forza Motorsport, etc. is also providing gamers with additional things to do. To me their showcase in June was the best since the FF surprise announcement back in the 360 era.
The problem with these platforming IPs is that there is a lack of creativity bringing the genre forward. Most of the platforming games guide you through a story and challenges with collectibles along the way that help you through the game in different ways. Platformers need to figure out how to make themselves relevant in different ways going forward to broaden how many gamers want to play them.
Gaming has gone through different phases in my life. When I was young I played games in almost all my spare time. When I had a family gaming was still there but didn't have the time I had when I was young. My kids are in the graduation phase from high school and university and I am getting more time but not gaming much because I am in a lifestyle transition from the big home with a family to the home I will probably have until I retire. I expect once I get done this transition I will start to get more gaming time. It is one of my hobbies. But, I am no where nearly as competitive and I don't have the reflexes I had earlier so not much of an online gamer. Much more enjoy a great story and a game that isn't overly challenging to get through. Gone are the days of 100% percenting achievements and being able to do games like Souls and twitchy MP games like Street Fighter, etc. In are the days of games that have a great story, make me think to get through them, and at least involve some talent to get through the story. Only a few games will I strive to get 100% achievement completion as long as they are not a full on commitment for weeks/months.
As I am getting older I am facing the reality that my health depends on a balance. To me gaming is more mental than physical, but I will also need the physical me to avoid the big issues like heart disease, stoke, cancer, etc. My advice to people is that too much of any one thing is not good. Gaming to me is an important hobby, but so is getting outdoors, eating healthy,, and physically being healthy. No one approach fits all and you need to do research to figure out the balance you want in your life for gaming.
More devices where XB games are available = More XB gamers = more XB games. I like this a lot. I have a 7 TVs between two homes. I buy firesticks for all my TVs. The ability to play on firestick will save me having to buy consoles for every TV.
@Scummbuddy
MS doesn't tell studios what games to make from what information is available publicly. There are certain studios that are allocated to specific IPs for sure.
Redfall was in development before MS even took over the studio so it can't be said the studio was doing something MS told them to do.
@Mustoe
MS cannot delay games forever. I would think that the studio would've been asked when the game would be ready. MS delayed the game a year. They can't delay a game forever. And judging by my personal experience with the game it would've taken several more years to make the game a truly great experience.
@tho_mi To be fair they purchased more than two publishers. They also purchased a bunch of individual studios before that.
To also be fair creating games is obviously changing and taking a lot longer. Sony has always been considered a great gaming content delivery company. Naughty Dog, Guerilla, Sucker Punch, etc. have all been pretty quiet this past few years. The only developer that seems to be delivering consistently this generation is Insomniac and it is pretty obvious they are just enhancing and improving their engine while putting a new story/paint job on it.
I think a lot of studios have been struggling with the new platforms and what they can potentially create for them. The new platforms allow for massive scope games and a lot of new capabilities. In past generations games taking advantage of new capabilities have taken longer and longer to create. I expect the entire industry is having a similar problem.
By buying so many publishers/studios I think MS has enough total studios that they can generate content consistently. Sony is now much smaller on content creation and it is showing. Their internal studios are struggling to ship new content with frequency.
Hearing from the head of the studio that developed Redfall that they have energy for what is next is not promising. LOL. Redfall had a good premise and the story was decent, but the execution was awful. This guy should go back to doing what he did before he was a studio head. Because anyone that was reporting that the game was ready to ship or that felt it was good enough to ship should not be running any studio.
There are very few studios that have been around a long time. There are a lot more disappointing closures than there are studios that have longevity.
Unfortunately, this is how the industry works. You need to build games that sell 10 mln plus copies consistently to stick around. Not a lot of studios do that.
I would expect to see a big GamePass drop in around the holiday season (October) timeframe to try and drive more console sales. CoD and a bunch Activision-Blizzard games would drive sale pretty good. Add Overwatch 2, Crash, Spyro games, and Tony Hawk for holidays 2024 would probably help drive console sales nicely.
I don't know why people think this is a 2025 possible release. XB has a lot of games due for release soon. I doubt that a studio that released Wasteland 3 in 2020 followed by some expansions is anywhere close to done their next game. I would expect this to be 2026 or beyond. Large AAA games are taking longer and longer to make. Look at The Coalition. They released Gears 5 in 2019, they just announced Gears E-Day this month. Probably still on the horizon for release.
I really liked this format. Very small bits from leadership, the rest was trailer after trailer and gameplay after gameplay of a ton of games coming to XB. Microsoft's size with XBox Game Studios, AKB, and Bethesda is starting to show. They didn't even bring half their studios to the show!
Was it just me or did this game feel too "cartoony". I am really scared this may be the last kick of the can for Bioware, and I am not sure it looks like it will be all that successful.
I started with the original XB. I was on a gaming pause for a few years because of life circumstances (career, spouse, kids, house buying, etc.). I bought original XB near the end of its cycle to play Halo and its online vision. Bought every XB day one since.
I primarily game on XB but own Switch/Wii and all the PS devices except PS1. I primarily game on XB because:
1) They have a vision I want to see with gaming. Gaming anywhere on any device I choose. 2) Online is higher quality and more reliable (Although does have its issues). 3) My career has been full of MS products professionally and I feel they give good bang for each buck spent. Therefore I felt their gaming product would do the same. I was correct. I often compare my costs of gaming between Nintendo, MS, and Sony. I find Nintendo most expensive, Sony sec most expensive, and MS the cheapest platform to game on based on how I purchase.
I played through the game and it is nothing great (But not totally bad). Critic scores were deserved, and although I hate any studio shutting down, if this was a sign of their future games then MS made the correct choice here.
I am frustrated with all these downsizing, studio closures, etc.
But, there is a fundamental change happening in the industry.
AAA games are costing more and taking longer to build. Inflation has happened so now games are more expensive to build and they cost more to buy. Also, because games are getting bigger they take a lot longer to build. This is not a linear thing, it is more exponential. Just play GTA III and then play GTA V, You can see there is a ton more to the game. And GTA VI will be even bigger. You look at the sheer size of games. Most great games are at least double or triple the install size the same franchise games was last generation and literally 10-50 times the size they were in the PS3/XB/Wii era. All this adds up to more to build a game.
With more to build it makes certain games not profitable anymore. I hate that Tango closed, but their games were not high profit games, they were mostly breaking even and although Evil Within and HiFi Rush were both successful games, I doubt they made much. Nobody talks about how disappointed they are to see Ghostwire gone. The studio made a decent game there but for all purposes it was a flop both financially and critically.
Shutting down Arcane Austin. Ya, that was well deserved. Redfall was a hot mess at launch, and really didn't get a lot better after the studio spending a year fixing it.
And I might add studio closures are nothing new. Sony has closed a couple studios over the past couple years and also laid off 8% of gaming staff. This is not unique in the industry. It is rumored that Ubisoft also cancelled a major game, EA has done layoffs/closures, etc. People are acting like this is all new news and XB is evil, but they are just doing what ALL other major publishers are doing.
I get it, the games from Tango weren't necessarily big sellers, but outside of Ghostwire I felt the studio provided game quality and diversity to XB. A shame they shut this studio down.
They talked about focus, but it is not like Tango employees are going to other XB Japan studios to help focus more. I don't even think there are other Japan XB studios to go to.
Wish #1 - I hope that exclusives disappear on all platforms going forward. I like to play great games and every platform has games you can only play on specific platforms day one.
Wish #2 - Consoles get a Hardware/Firmware/OS standard that all the vendors ship. Whether it is Sony, MS, or Nintendo standard hardware would reduce the cost of development and allow developers to focus on the standard.
Wish #3 - I wish fanboyism would completely disappear. Fanboys are toxic to gaming.
I primarily play on XB, but I also own a PC, iPad, iPhone, XSX, PS5, Switch, and Asus ROG Ally. I could save buying at least two devices ($800) if I only had to buy one console brand to play all console games which I could re-direct to buying more games.
@Fenbops I stopped buying games day one years ago. The turning point was when Rocksteady shipped Batman Arkham City. Got 12 hours into the game and my game save corrupted. A day later they announced it was a bug.
Games ship on day one as alphas or betas at best now-a-days. If the game catches on the companies do what it takes to make them full and proper games. If they don't do well, they just shutdown the studios and quit supporting the game.
I really want to like modern games, but more and more the companies are turning me off of the industry.
I am mildly surprised with Tango because they have made great games. The others should come as no surprise. Roundhouse has been MIA for years now, Alpha dog is redundant with the large mobile developers they acquired with AKB, and Austin completely blew Redfall.
Tango was a great studio but the issue is the genre of games they played in are not huge sellers. Evil Within is a great game, but its grittiness/horror is a turn off to the mass market. Ghost Wire was interesting but not very well received critically. HiFi was really good, but not a big seller probably. It is disappointing this has to happen, but these companies exist for profit, not to build games that don't recover their investments.
This is what sucks about the gaming/movie business. The money goes to the big selling projects while the more creative and riskier projects get shelved. I just hope MS does not dump Double Fine. They have quirky, fun, creative games.
@IOI I agree. MS has spent the marketing dollars but I don't think they are getting the reach that they need. Just look at how AKB games sell, it is obvious their marketing is top notch. It seems like everything they release is either a popular cult classic, or wildly successful game.
I have the Asus ROG Ally and love it, would love a true XB Console version of a handheld similar to ROG Ally. My only three beefs of the ROG Ally is:
1) It isn't a true console interface (it is Windows). 2) Battery life needs to be longer. 3) Would like a option to buy a SIM card and use 5G cellular for mobile gaming.
I envision three variants.
1) XB Mobile Stream - A streaming only device. Long battery life but must always be connected to broadband. 2) XB Mobile - A ROG Ally type console device. 3) XB Mobile Pro - A ROG Ally type console device. with 5G capabilities.
@ValentineMeikin That is factually incorrect. On X360 I can go in and manage all game saves. Cloud, hard drive, and USB for all my 360 games. It was the dark era of XBO that MS started to make this opaque to the gamer.
Really this is an artificial increase. But, I hope that MS Gaming revenue starts increasing more over time now that studios have completed their pre-MS projects and are now starting to deliver projects that are solely under MS.
I typically choose framerate over quality. I am glad gamers get to choose. There are some games where the graphics are so good though that I will choose resolution over framerate.
There is no way I pay $22.49 for three games that are over 20 years old and when I originally bought all three as they came to bargain bins I picked them up for $9.99 each. I will wait til they are 50% off. I really liked the games but I can still fire up my original PS to play them.
@shoeses
Personally I think this article is mis-titled. Forward compatibility is the ability of something today to take advantage of new tech as it becomes available. For example, if the game is 4K when 8K consoles come out it can take full advantage of the 8K device because the assets of the game were actually made in 8K.
Games Preservation is more about the ability to keep a game running as it is today on future devices. Building into the firmware/OS of devices the ability to continue to run the games well into the future on future device. That does not mean they will take advantage of the device capabilities though.
There is no mention of forward compatibility in the quote of the article though. So that is why I say it is mis-titled.
To me, turnover happens in the gaming industry. I don't know how that makes news. AAA games are made by 100's of people. It is a team effort not an individual effort.
Especially now that the industry is consolidating there is bound to be people that don't like consolidation, think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and just get paid so much that they don't need/want to work anymore. It happens in every industry.
This just shows the current state of gaming which is not good in my opinion.
Only three games have a true single player campaign on the list (CoD, GTA, and Starfield). Only one of them is driven by the SP experience (Starfield) whereas the other two GTA and CoD probably made the list based on their MP experience.
@GuyinPA75 I think the Series S is a 7/10 device. It is a great idea but I think the execution of its specs was a bit off. But you have to remember that it is the first such console ever. I like that they are giving gamers different entry prices to consoles. They just could've did a better job making sure the specs were up to snuff in the right places. I would love to see another Series S next generation now that they have experience with having a multi-tiered console entry point.
As for mobile vs console UIs I don't think that is all that hard to deal with. Games already adjust to different screen resolutions, so mobile is mostly an exercise in adjusting to a smaller screen resolution.
I don't know about that. A certain amount of any game like resident evil is how they setup the surprise and shocking moments in the game. How would you set those up to happen in an open world environment because many of these are dependent on sequence?
Storage this generation is a real sore spot for me. I had 3 x 8 Tb drives housing my entire 360 and XBO library. Now I am down to 3 Tb with the expansion card. I want to be able to have tons of storage for all my games and I don't want to always be thinking about the fast vs slow storage available. And now that we are a few years into this gen there just is not enough fast storage available on these devices.
The headline here is really dramatic. I am not sure this is a widespread thought that people are "gutted". Are people disappointed? Probably. Anytime something is scaled back or taken away that was free is always a disappointment when scaled back.
Are people "gutted"? I don't feel gutted. To me rewards are a bonus and I save them up all year then convert them to XB gift cards. Doing so allows me to buy games/subscriptions into the new year. I just like they are giving me something back for what I pay and as I play.
I expect within the next 5 years, exclusivity as we know it today will not exist. There is too much shareholder pressure on first parties to make more money on the games they create. They have max'd out microtransactions, game expansions, and have dramatically raised game prices.
The next logical step is ship the game on more platforms.
I only buy remasters when they are at least 75% off. I will buy remakes closer to 50% off if they are reviewed as really good remakes.
I don't understand why people buy remasters at full price. Often the remasters cost more than the original version of the game on day one. And all remasters are is people going and touching up the graphical assets of the game without improving gameplay or the story.
Remakes are a bit different. If done well I find them worth buying after they get to 50% off. I figure 50% of game development is creativity and figuring out how to make a game work well. So, I am waiting until that 50% is in the cost of the game.
As with every company, Sony is at the whim of shareholders. After they announced PS5 sales would not meet expectations and that the games profit margin would decrease they had $10 bln wiped off their stock value. Shareholders demand they get a return on investment and took the sword to Sony.
Sony's reaction was this layoff. It is sad, but the truth is shareholders rule the world, not the gaming CEOs, not the publishers, and not the tech people making games. That is the way it is in any industry. Company moves are driven by shareholders and nothing else.
LOL. I just finished the campaign that I meticulously went through doing everything along the way. I quite enjoyed the campaign. Not sure I will play much more because to go through the full campaign took me so long. Got my money's worth though. If you are a Diablo fan, the campaign will not disappoint.
I bought Geometry Survivor because I am a huge Geometry Wars fan. Finished it rather quickly in a few hours but enjoyed it. Seems more like demo than a full game though.
Would've like to have seen some traditional Geometry Wars type levels/mode types in it. But their attempt to cross Geometry Wars with Vampire Survivors was good (Rogue like, upgrading between games so you can last longer).
They lost $10bln in market cap last week because of lower than expected margins in their gaming business. They either have to charge their gamers more for games, or start shipping more games on more platforms. I doubt they can get away with charging gamers more for their games because of the huge increase in game cost to gamers already incurred this past couple of years. So that leaves shipping more on more platforms.
Last Friday, Sony lost $10 bln in share drops in part because shareholders are concerned that their first party studios aren't getting the margins they used to. I would expect that games are going to start shipping across platforms from all major first party publishers eventually. Shareholders will demand it if there is a platform they think they can make money on but aren't.
XB just happens to be the first first party publisher going this direction. I would also expect next year to see at least Redfall go to PS5.
I also think the hate on over this move by MS is stupid. All of the games announced have next to no continuous sales and none of them were insanely financially successful on XB.
The message from MS seems to be, "If it didn't make enough money on XB, we will see if it can make money elsewhere".
Although I am all digital I like gamers to have choice in how they purchase their games. I expect that physical media is dying a slow death, but that doesn't mean there isn't significant demand for it.
Comments 812
Re: GTA 5 Dev Talks Cancelled Single-Player DLC, Says It Was 'Really, Really Good'
It is a sad state we are in that even one of the biggest games in the market has to prioritize online over the single player experience.
Does not bode well for continued single player centric games.
Re: Xbox Series X|S Appears To Have Passed 600K Sales In Japan
@themightyant
There many reasons why I think S is doing well. First is cost. It is the cheapest way to get a powerful console. Second, I think would be TVs. Most smaller TVs are only HD, so there is not much sense buying an X if your TV is only HD and you intend to keep it that way. Finally, as a secondary console. If you primarily game on PS or Switch and decide to buy an XB secondary console to play some of the exclusive games, you probably see S as a cheap way to do that.
Personally, I bought an S for my one and only HD TV. No need to have an X when an S will do on a secondary gaming TV.
Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About 2024 On Xbox So Far?
Games are rolling out pretty consistently and are from a variety of genres. I think 2024 is doing fine.
For XB itself I think they are doing fine as well. Some new console offerings coming, a new IP before the end of the year, Hellblade II already released, and constant support for live service games such as Flight Simulator, Elder Scrolls, Forza Motorsport, etc. is also providing gamers with additional things to do. To me their showcase in June was the best since the FF surprise announcement back in the 360 era.
Re: Don't Get Your Hopes Up About Banjo-Kazooie, Suggests New Xbox Rumour
The problem with these platforming IPs is that there is a lack of creativity bringing the genre forward. Most of the platforming games guide you through a story and challenges with collectibles along the way that help you through the game in different ways. Platformers need to figure out how to make themselves relevant in different ways going forward to broaden how many gamers want to play them.
Re: Talking Point: Has Your Gaming Slowed Down As You've Got Older?
Gaming has gone through different phases in my life. When I was young I played games in almost all my spare time. When I had a family gaming was still there but didn't have the time I had when I was young. My kids are in the graduation phase from high school and university and I am getting more time but not gaming much because I am in a lifestyle transition from the big home with a family to the home I will probably have until I retire. I expect once I get done this transition I will start to get more gaming time. It is one of my hobbies. But, I am no where nearly as competitive and I don't have the reflexes I had earlier so not much of an online gamer. Much more enjoy a great story and a game that isn't overly challenging to get through. Gone are the days of 100% percenting achievements and being able to do games like Souls and twitchy MP games like Street Fighter, etc. In are the days of games that have a great story, make me think to get through them, and at least involve some talent to get through the story. Only a few games will I strive to get 100% achievement completion as long as they are not a full on commitment for weeks/months.
As I am getting older I am facing the reality that my health depends on a balance. To me gaming is more mental than physical, but I will also need the physical me to avoid the big issues like heart disease, stoke, cancer, etc. My advice to people is that too much of any one thing is not good. Gaming to me is an important hobby, but so is getting outdoors, eating healthy,, and physically being healthy. No one approach fits all and you need to do research to figure out the balance you want in your life for gaming.
Re: Capcom Announces New Dead Rising Remaster, Likely Coming To Xbox Series X|S
Loved the game but would rather see a full remake rather than just "yet another remaster".
Re: Xbox Is Bringing Cloud Gaming To The Amazon Fire TV Stick
More devices where XB games are available = More XB gamers = more XB games. I like this a lot. I have a 7 TVs between two homes. I buy firesticks for all my TVs. The ability to play on firestick will save me having to buy consoles for every TV.
Re: Xbox Patent Reveals What 'Keystone' Streaming Device Might Have Looked Like
@FarmDog08
I have a ROG Ally and it is pretty good to play all XB PC Games.
Would love to see MS enter the fray and deliver something with stronger battery life and better performance.
Re: Former Redfall Studio Head Already Looking Forward To What's Next
@Scummbuddy
MS doesn't tell studios what games to make from what information is available publicly. There are certain studios that are allocated to specific IPs for sure.
Redfall was in development before MS even took over the studio so it can't be said the studio was doing something MS told them to do.
@Mustoe
MS cannot delay games forever. I would think that the studio would've been asked when the game would be ready. MS delayed the game a year. They can't delay a game forever. And judging by my personal experience with the game it would've taken several more years to make the game a truly great experience.
Re: Xbox Already Planning For 'Great Showcase' Next Year As Team 'Hits Stride' In 2024
@tho_mi
To be fair they purchased more than two publishers. They also purchased a bunch of individual studios before that.
To also be fair creating games is obviously changing and taking a lot longer. Sony has always been considered a great gaming content delivery company. Naughty Dog, Guerilla, Sucker Punch, etc. have all been pretty quiet this past few years. The only developer that seems to be delivering consistently this generation is Insomniac and it is pretty obvious they are just enhancing and improving their engine while putting a new story/paint job on it.
I think a lot of studios have been struggling with the new platforms and what they can potentially create for them. The new platforms allow for massive scope games and a lot of new capabilities. In past generations games taking advantage of new capabilities have taken longer and longer to create. I expect the entire industry is having a similar problem.
By buying so many publishers/studios I think MS has enough total studios that they can generate content consistently. Sony is now much smaller on content creation and it is showing. Their internal studios are struggling to ship new content with frequency.
Re: Former Redfall Studio Head Already Looking Forward To What's Next
Hearing from the head of the studio that developed Redfall that they have energy for what is next is not promising. LOL. Redfall had a good premise and the story was decent, but the execution was awful. This guy should go back to doing what he did before he was a studio head. Because anyone that was reporting that the game was ready to ship or that felt it was good enough to ship should not be running any studio.
Re: Hi-Fi RUSH Developer Tango Gameworks Has Now Officially Closed Its Doors
There are very few studios that have been around a long time. There are a lot more disappointing closures than there are studios that have longevity.
Unfortunately, this is how the industry works. You need to build games that sell 10 mln plus copies consistently to stick around. Not a lot of studios do that.
Re: Xbox's 2024 Showcase Was Great, But It Was Missing A Big ActiBlizz Announcement
I would expect to see a big GamePass drop in around the holiday season (October) timeframe to try and drive more console sales. CoD and a bunch Activision-Blizzard games would drive sale pretty good. Add Overwatch 2, Crash, Spyro games, and Tony Hawk for holidays 2024 would probably help drive console sales nicely.
Re: Clockwork Revolution Dev Pokes Fun As It Still 'Figures Out' Xbox Release Date
I don't know why people think this is a 2025 possible release. XB has a lot of games due for release soon. I doubt that a studio that released Wasteland 3 in 2020 followed by some expansions is anywhere close to done their next game. I would expect this to be 2026 or beyond. Large AAA games are taking longer and longer to make. Look at The Coalition. They released Gears 5 in 2019, they just announced Gears E-Day this month. Probably still on the horizon for release.
Re: Reaction: Xbox's 2024 Showcase Felt Like A Throwback To The 360 Era, In The Best Way Possible
I really liked this format. Very small bits from leadership, the rest was trailer after trailer and gameplay after gameplay of a ton of games coming to XB. Microsoft's size with XBox Game Studios, AKB, and Bethesda is starting to show. They didn't even bring half their studios to the show!
Re: Dragon Age: The Veilguard Brings BioWare RPG Back To Xbox In Fall 2024
Was it just me or did this game feel too "cartoony". I am really scared this may be the last kick of the can for Bioware, and I am not sure it looks like it will be all that successful.
Re: Poll: How Would You Grade The Xbox Games Showcase 2024?
XB did well today, hopefully the negative news is in the rear view mirror now and we hear great news like today going forward.
Re: Gears Of War: E-Day Dev Is 'Not Retreating' From The Modern Gears Saga
More gears = More Lancer = More chain saw fun!
Re: Talking Point: What Convinced You To Pick Xbox In The First Place?
I started with the original XB. I was on a gaming pause for a few years because of life circumstances (career, spouse, kids, house buying, etc.). I bought original XB near the end of its cycle to play Halo and its online vision. Bought every XB day one since.
I primarily game on XB but own Switch/Wii and all the PS devices except PS1. I primarily game on XB because:
1) They have a vision I want to see with gaming. Gaming anywhere on any device I choose.
2) Online is higher quality and more reliable (Although does have its issues).
3) My career has been full of MS products professionally and I feel they give good bang for each buck spent. Therefore I felt their gaming product would do the same. I was correct. I often compare my costs of gaming between Nintendo, MS, and Sony. I find Nintendo most expensive, Sony sec most expensive, and MS the cheapest platform to game on based on how I purchase.
Re: Bethesda Announces Plans For The Final Redfall Update On Xbox & PC
I played through the game and it is nothing great (But not totally bad). Critic scores were deserved, and although I hate any studio shutting down, if this was a sign of their future games then MS made the correct choice here.
Re: Activision Is Opening A New Studio To Build 'Genre-Defining' Games At Microsoft
I am frustrated with all these downsizing, studio closures, etc.
But, there is a fundamental change happening in the industry.
AAA games are costing more and taking longer to build. Inflation has happened so now games are more expensive to build and they cost more to buy. Also, because games are getting bigger they take a lot longer to build. This is not a linear thing, it is more exponential. Just play GTA III and then play GTA V, You can see there is a ton more to the game. And GTA VI will be even bigger. You look at the sheer size of games. Most great games are at least double or triple the install size the same franchise games was last generation and literally 10-50 times the size they were in the PS3/XB/Wii era. All this adds up to more to build a game.
With more to build it makes certain games not profitable anymore. I hate that Tango closed, but their games were not high profit games, they were mostly breaking even and although Evil Within and HiFi Rush were both successful games, I doubt they made much. Nobody talks about how disappointed they are to see Ghostwire gone. The studio made a decent game there but for all purposes it was a flop both financially and critically.
Shutting down Arcane Austin. Ya, that was well deserved. Redfall was a hot mess at launch, and really didn't get a lot better after the studio spending a year fixing it.
And I might add studio closures are nothing new. Sony has closed a couple studios over the past couple years and also laid off 8% of gaming staff. This is not unique in the industry. It is rumored that Ubisoft also cancelled a major game, EA has done layoffs/closures, etc. People are acting like this is all new news and XB is evil, but they are just doing what ALL other major publishers are doing.
Re: Tango Gameworks Manager Proudly Displays Hi-Fi RUSH Awards Following Studio Shutdown
I get it, the games from Tango weren't necessarily big sellers, but outside of Ghostwire I felt the studio provided game quality and diversity to XB. A shame they shut this studio down.
They talked about focus, but it is not like Tango employees are going to other XB Japan studios to help focus more. I don't even think there are other Japan XB studios to go to.
Re: Xbox's Sea Of Thieves Plunders PS5 Charts, Becoming Europe's Best-Selling Game In April
3 Wishes...
Wish #1 - I hope that exclusives disappear on all platforms going forward. I like to play great games and every platform has games you can only play on specific platforms day one.
Wish #2 - Consoles get a Hardware/Firmware/OS standard that all the vendors ship. Whether it is Sony, MS, or Nintendo standard hardware would reduce the cost of development and allow developers to focus on the standard.
Wish #3 - I wish fanboyism would completely disappear. Fanboys are toxic to gaming.
I primarily play on XB, but I also own a PC, iPad, iPhone, XSX, PS5, Switch, and Asus ROG Ally. I could save buying at least two devices ($800) if I only had to buy one console brand to play all console games which I could re-direct to buying more games.
Re: Redfall DLC Cancelled As Developer Arkane Austin Gets Closed Down By Xbox
@Fenbops
I stopped buying games day one years ago. The turning point was when Rocksteady shipped Batman Arkham City. Got 12 hours into the game and my game save corrupted. A day later they announced it was a bug.
Games ship on day one as alphas or betas at best now-a-days. If the game catches on the companies do what it takes to make them full and proper games. If they don't do well, they just shutdown the studios and quit supporting the game.
I really want to like modern games, but more and more the companies are turning me off of the industry.
Re: Xbox Fans React Angrily To Closure Of Bethesda's Tango Gameworks
I am mildly surprised with Tango because they have made great games. The others should come as no surprise. Roundhouse has been MIA for years now, Alpha dog is redundant with the large mobile developers they acquired with AKB, and Austin completely blew Redfall.
Tango was a great studio but the issue is the genre of games they played in are not huge sellers. Evil Within is a great game, but its grittiness/horror is a turn off to the mass market. Ghost Wire was interesting but not very well received critically. HiFi was really good, but not a big seller probably. It is disappointing this has to happen, but these companies exist for profit, not to build games that don't recover their investments.
This is what sucks about the gaming/movie business. The money goes to the big selling projects while the more creative and riskier projects get shelved. I just hope MS does not dump Double Fine. They have quirky, fun, creative games.
Re: Xbox Exec Hypes Up Hellblade 2 As Team Green Lays Out Launch Plans
@IOI
I agree. MS has spent the marketing dollars but I don't think they are getting the reach that they need. Just look at how AKB games sell, it is obvious their marketing is top notch. It seems like everything they release is either a popular cult classic, or wildly successful game.
Re: Microsoft Gauges Interest In 'Handheld Gaming' Devices With New Survey
I have the Asus ROG Ally and love it, would love a true XB Console version of a handheld similar to ROG Ally. My only three beefs of the ROG Ally is:
1) It isn't a true console interface (it is Windows).
2) Battery life needs to be longer.
3) Would like a option to buy a SIM card and use 5G cellular for mobile gaming.
I envision three variants.
1) XB Mobile Stream - A streaming only device. Long battery life but must always be connected to broadband.
2) XB Mobile - A ROG Ally type console device.
3) XB Mobile Pro - A ROG Ally type console device. with 5G capabilities.
Re: Xbox Cloud Gaming Is Adding The Ability To Manage Save Files
@ValentineMeikin
That is factually incorrect. On X360 I can go in and manage all game saves. Cloud, hard drive, and USB for all my 360 games. It was the dark era of XBO that MS started to make this opaque to the gamer.
Re: Xbox's Gaming Revenue Is Up 51% YoY Following Activision Blizzard Acquisition
Really this is an artificial increase. But, I hope that MS Gaming revenue starts increasing more over time now that studios have completed their pre-MS projects and are now starting to deliver projects that are solely under MS.
Re: Talking Point: How Often Do You Pick 'Quality' Over 'Performance' Modes On Xbox Series X|S?
I typically choose framerate over quality. I am glad gamers get to choose. There are some games where the graphics are so good though that I will choose resolution over framerate.
Re: Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered Is Reduced On Xbox For The First Time This Week
There is no way I pay $22.49 for three games that are over 20 years old and when I originally bought all three as they came to bargain bins I picked them up for $9.99 each. I will wait til they are 50% off. I really liked the games but I can still fire up my original PS to play them.
Re: Xbox Establishes New Team Dedicated To 'Game Preservation And Forward Compatibility'
@shoeses
Personally I think this article is mis-titled. Forward compatibility is the ability of something today to take advantage of new tech as it becomes available. For example, if the game is 4K when 8K consoles come out it can take full advantage of the 8K device because the assets of the game were actually made in 8K.
Games Preservation is more about the ability to keep a game running as it is today on future devices. Building into the firmware/OS of devices the ability to continue to run the games well into the future on future device. That does not mean they will take advantage of the device capabilities though.
There is no mention of forward compatibility in the quote of the article though. So that is why I say it is mis-titled.
Re: Hellblade 1's Director Is No Longer Part Of Ninja Theory, Confirms Xbox
To me, turnover happens in the gaming industry. I don't know how that makes news. AAA games are made by 100's of people. It is a team effort not an individual effort.
Especially now that the industry is consolidating there is bound to be people that don't like consolidation, think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and just get paid so much that they don't need/want to work anymore. It happens in every industry.
Re: Xbox & PlayStation's Most-Played Games In 2023 Were Averaging Seven Years Old
This just shows the current state of gaming which is not good in my opinion.
Only three games have a true single player campaign on the list (CoD, GTA, and Starfield). Only one of them is driven by the SP experience (Starfield) whereas the other two GTA and CoD probably made the list based on their MP experience.
Re: Gearbox Entertainment Acquired By 2K As Team Confirms 'Borderlands 4'
That is a nice logical fit as they often published through 2K games.
Re: Rumour: Microsoft Is Apparently Prototyping Xbox Handheld Hardware
@GuyinPA75
I think the Series S is a 7/10 device. It is a great idea but I think the execution of its specs was a bit off. But you have to remember that it is the first such console ever. I like that they are giving gamers different entry prices to consoles. They just could've did a better job making sure the specs were up to snuff in the right places. I would love to see another Series S next generation now that they have experience with having a multi-tiered console entry point.
As for mobile vs console UIs I don't think that is all that hard to deal with. Games already adjust to different screen resolutions, so mobile is mostly an exercise in adjusting to a smaller screen resolution.
Re: Rumour: Resident Evil 9 Could Go Open World Thanks To Dragon's Dogma 2
I don't know about that. A certain amount of any game like resident evil is how they setup the surprise and shocking moments in the game. How would you set those up to happen in an open world environment because many of these are dependent on sequence?
Re: Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Owners, How's Your Storage Looking In 2024?
Storage this generation is a real sore spot for me. I had 3 x 8 Tb drives housing my entire 360 and XBO library. Now I am down to 3 Tb with the expansion card. I want to be able to have tons of storage for all my games and I don't want to always be thinking about the fast vs slow storage available. And now that we are a few years into this gen there just is not enough fast storage available on these devices.
Re: Xbox Users Are 'Gutted' About The Latest Microsoft Rewards Nerf
The headline here is really dramatic. I am not sure this is a widespread thought that people are "gutted". Are people disappointed? Probably. Anytime something is scaled back or taken away that was free is always a disappointment when scaled back.
Are people "gutted"? I don't feel gutted. To me rewards are a bonus and I save them up all year then convert them to XB gift cards. Doing so allows me to buy games/subscriptions into the new year. I just like they are giving me something back for what I pay and as I play.
Re: Gears Of War Creator Thinks 'The More, The Merrier' In Regards To Getting Gears On PS5
I expect within the next 5 years, exclusivity as we know it today will not exist. There is too much shareholder pressure on first parties to make more money on the games they create. They have max'd out microtransactions, game expansions, and have dramatically raised game prices.
The next logical step is ship the game on more platforms.
Re: Poll: How Often Do You Buy Games That Have Been 'Remade' Or 'Remastered'?
I only buy remasters when they are at least 75% off. I will buy remakes closer to 50% off if they are reviewed as really good remakes.
I don't understand why people buy remasters at full price. Often the remasters cost more than the original version of the game on day one. And all remasters are is people going and touching up the graphical assets of the game without improving gameplay or the story.
Remakes are a bit different. If done well I find them worth buying after they get to 50% off. I figure 50% of game development is creativity and figuring out how to make a game work well. So, I am waiting until that 50% is in the cost of the game.
Re: Talking Point: Do You Make Use Of Cloud Gaming On Xbox Game Pass?
I use it sometimes when I am not home on my phone. It is good enough for story driven games that do not require low latency controls.
Re: PlayStation Follows Xbox In Announcing Significant Layoffs For 2024
As with every company, Sony is at the whim of shareholders. After they announced PS5 sales would not meet expectations and that the games profit margin would decrease they had $10 bln wiped off their stock value. Shareholders demand they get a return on investment and took the sword to Sony.
https://www.vcpost.com/articles/124614/20240219/sony-loses-10-billion-ps5-sales-drop-games-profit-year.htm
Sony's reaction was this layoff. It is sad, but the truth is shareholders rule the world, not the gaming CEOs, not the publishers, and not the tech people making games. That is the way it is in any industry. Company moves are driven by shareholders and nothing else.
Re: 10 Years Ago, One Of The Best Shooters In Xbox History Made Its Debut
The lack of a true SP campaign kept me away from Titanfall. I quite enjoyed the second one with an SP campaign.
Re: Age Of Mythology: Retold Coming To Xbox, PC And Game Pass In 2024
I love these games, but only play them on PC. I prefer to play these games with mouse and keyboard.
Re: Xbox Game Pass: All Games Coming Soon In March 2024
LOL. I just finished the campaign that I meticulously went through doing everything along the way. I quite enjoyed the campaign. Not sure I will play much more because to go through the full campaign took me so long. Got my money's worth though. If you are a Diablo fan, the campaign will not disappoint.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 24-25)
I bought Geometry Survivor because I am a huge Geometry Wars fan. Finished it rather quickly in a few hours but enjoyed it. Seems more like demo than a full game though.
Would've like to have seen some traditional Geometry Wars type levels/mode types in it. But their attempt to cross Geometry Wars with Vampire Survivors was good (Rogue like, upgrading between games so you can last longer).
Re: Talking Point: Will Certain PlayStation & Nintendo Games Eventually Come To Xbox?
Sony will definitely put some of their games on more platforms and I think this will include XB.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/19/sony-gaming-margin-questioned-after-ps5-sales-cut-sparks-stock-plunge.html
They lost $10bln in market cap last week because of lower than expected margins in their gaming business. They either have to charge their gamers more for games, or start shipping more games on more platforms. I doubt they can get away with charging gamers more for their games because of the huge increase in game cost to gamers already incurred this past couple of years. So that leaves shipping more on more platforms.
Re: Obsidian Blasted By Xbox Fans For 'Prioritising' PS5 & Switch Versions Of Pentiment
Last Friday, Sony lost $10 bln in share drops in part because shareholders are concerned that their first party studios aren't getting the margins they used to. I would expect that games are going to start shipping across platforms from all major first party publishers eventually. Shareholders will demand it if there is a platform they think they can make money on but aren't.
XB just happens to be the first first party publisher going this direction. I would also expect next year to see at least Redfall go to PS5.
I also think the hate on over this move by MS is stupid. All of the games announced have next to no continuous sales and none of them were insanely financially successful on XB.
The message from MS seems to be, "If it didn't make enough money on XB, we will see if it can make money elsewhere".
Re: Xbox Insists It's Not Ditching Physical Games: 'That's Not A Strategic Thing For Us'
Although I am all digital I like gamers to have choice in how they purchase their games. I expect that physical media is dying a slow death, but that doesn't mean there isn't significant demand for it.