The argument that “being acquired by Microsoft/Xbox would doom studios” doesn’t really hold up when you look at what’s actually been happening across the industry since the pandemic. The uncomfortable truth is that studios are already shutting down at a high rate while independent or under less stable ownership. A strong parent company can sometimes be the difference between survival and closure.
It’s not that acquisitions are inherently good—but the idea that studios are safer staying independent (or with smaller/publisher-dependent backing) has been repeatedly disproven. In today’s market, financial stability, long-term funding, and platform support matter more than independence alone.
Many studios that closed simply didn’t have that safety net.
Armature Studio (Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate) Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2) Ivy Road (The Stanley Parable and Gone Home) Luminous Productions (Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken) Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R. and Condemned) Ready at Dawn (The Order: 1886 and God of War) Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy's franchise) Roll7 (OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome) Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath) Tequila Works (Rime and Deadlight) Twisted Pixel Games ('Splosion Man and Marvel's Deadpool VR) Volition (Saints Row and Red Faction)
The argument that “being acquired by Microsoft/Xbox would doom studios” doesn’t really hold up when you look at what’s actually been happening across the industry since the pandemic. The uncomfortable truth is that studios are already shutting down at a high rate while independent or under less stable ownership. A strong parent company can sometimes be the difference between survival and closure.
It’s not that acquisitions are inherently good—but the idea that studios are safer staying independent (or with smaller/publisher-dependent backing) has been repeatedly disproven. In today’s market, financial stability, long-term funding, and platform support matter more than independence alone.
Many studios that closed simply didn’t have that safety net.
Armature Studio (Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate)
Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2)
Ivy Road (The Stanley Parable and Gone Home)
Luminous Productions (Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken)
Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R. and Condemned)
Ready at Dawn (The Order: 1886 and God of War)
Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy's franchise)
Roll7 (OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome)
Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath)
Tequila Works (Rime and Deadlight)
Twisted Pixel Games ('Splosion Man and Marvel's Deadpool VR)
Volition (Saints Row and Red Faction)
@zekepliskin "This signals exactly what I expected - they're going to lean on the back catalogue even more heavily because they have nothing new to offer. How long do they expect people to pay monthly subs for old games they could already play on original hardware now? Even the slowest gamers will wake up to the fact most of what is on Game Pass is either weak or great but over 5 years old and cancel."
That’s a weird take honestly. One of the main reasons people subscribe to Game Pass in the first place is because of the day-one releases. It’s not just a “back catalogue” service.
Game Pass regularly adds brand-new games the same day they launch. Award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong all arrived on the service day one.
@GamingGod "The PC crowd are pretty undeserving of the best franchises in gaming imo"
“The PC crowd are undeserving of the best franchises” is hilarious considering those franchises are literally made on PCs.
Developers aren’t sitting there building games on a PlayStation or Xbox. The entire industry pipeline runs on PC workstations using engines, with code written, compiled, and debugged on PC before it ever touches a console devkit.
All the art, animation, level design, and programming happens on PC. Then the finished build gets exported to consoles like PlayStation or Xbox.
So the idea that PC players are “undeserving” of those games is pretty ironic when PC is the platform the entire industry is built on. Consoles are basically just another target platform for software that was created on PC in the first place.
@dreadful "MS are completely creatively bankrupt. It's so over. They can't create anything new"
This is just… objectively wrong.
Xbox, Activision, and Bethesda have launched or published new IP and new games like Ara: History Untold, Avowed, Deathloop, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Grounded, Hellblade, Hi-Fi Rush, Indiana Jones, Keeper, Ori, Pentiment, Redfall, Sea of Thieves, South of Midnight, Starfield, The Outer Worlds, and Towerborne. That’s without even touching upcoming new IP like Clockwork Revolution, Marvel’s Blade, and OD.
Revived old IP like Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Battletoads, Fable, Killer Instinct, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ninja Gaiden, and Psychonauts.
They’ve also taken existing franchises and pushed them into completely different genres, which is the opposite of creative bankruptcy: Gears Tactics (strategy), Halo Wars (RTS), Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends (action-RPG/strategy), and even Crash Team Rumble turning a platformer into a team-based multiplayer game.
Every major publisher does remakes alongside new IP. You don’t have to like Xbox’s output, but pretending they “can’t create anything new” is just ignoring reality.
@GamingGod "When Xbox do something good I’ll cheer it on."
First-party and major releases alone include Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Doom: The Dark Ages, Gears of War: Reloaded, Grounded 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, South of Midnight, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, The Outer Worlds 2, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Game Pass added award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
On top of that, Xbox landed huge ports like Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy XVI, Genshin Impact, Helldivers 2, Silent Hill 2, and Triangle Strategy.
If that’s “not a great year,” then the bar has officially left the planet!
@JayJ "there hasn't been much for the fans to cheer about"
First-party and major releases alone include Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Doom: The Dark Ages, Gears of War: Reloaded, Grounded 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, South of Midnight, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, The Outer Worlds 2, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Game Pass added award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
On top of that, Xbox landed huge ports like Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy XVI, Genshin Impact, Helldivers 2, Silent Hill 2, and Triangle Strategy.
If that’s “not a great year,” then the bar has officially left the planet!
Comments 10
Re: Xbox Exec Invites Fans To Share Backwards Compatibility Requests On Special Website
Spartan: Total Warrior
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Re: Nacon's RPG Studio Seemingly Shutting Down Following Financial Troubles
The argument that “being acquired by Microsoft/Xbox would doom studios” doesn’t really hold up when you look at what’s actually been happening across the industry since the pandemic. The uncomfortable truth is that studios are already shutting down at a high rate while independent or under less stable ownership. A strong parent company can sometimes be the difference between survival and closure.
It’s not that acquisitions are inherently good—but the idea that studios are safer staying independent (or with smaller/publisher-dependent backing) has been repeatedly disproven. In today’s market, financial stability, long-term funding, and platform support matter more than independence alone.
Many studios that closed simply didn’t have that safety net.
Armature Studio (Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate)
Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2)
Ivy Road (The Stanley Parable and Gone Home)
Luminous Productions (Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken)
Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R. and Condemned)
Ready at Dawn (The Order: 1886 and God of War)
Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy's franchise)
Roll7 (OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome)
Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath)
Tequila Works (Rime and Deadlight)
Twisted Pixel Games ('Splosion Man and Marvel's Deadpool VR)
Volition (Saints Row and Red Faction)
Re: It's Been Years Since Xbox Acquired A Studio, But It Sounds Like They're Considering It Again
The argument that “being acquired by Microsoft/Xbox would doom studios” doesn’t really hold up when you look at what’s actually been happening across the industry since the pandemic. The uncomfortable truth is that studios are already shutting down at a high rate while independent or under less stable ownership. A strong parent company can sometimes be the difference between survival and closure.
It’s not that acquisitions are inherently good—but the idea that studios are safer staying independent (or with smaller/publisher-dependent backing) has been repeatedly disproven. In today’s market, financial stability, long-term funding, and platform support matter more than independence alone.
Many studios that closed simply didn’t have that safety net.
Armature Studio (Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate)
Intercept Games (Kerbal Space Program 2)
Ivy Road (The Stanley Parable and Gone Home)
Luminous Productions (Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken)
Monolith Productions (F.E.A.R. and Condemned)
Ready at Dawn (The Order: 1886 and God of War)
Red Storm Entertainment (Tom Clancy's franchise)
Roll7 (OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome)
Sanzaru Games (Asgard's Wrath)
Tequila Works (Rime and Deadlight)
Twisted Pixel Games ('Splosion Man and Marvel's Deadpool VR)
Volition (Saints Row and Red Faction)
Re: Xbox Says Backwards Compatibility Program Will Be Revived For 25th Anniversary
@zekepliskin "This signals exactly what I expected - they're going to lean on the back catalogue even more heavily because they have nothing new to offer. How long do they expect people to pay monthly subs for old games they could already play on original hardware now? Even the slowest gamers will wake up to the fact most of what is on Game Pass is either weak or great but over 5 years old and cancel."
That’s a weird take honestly. One of the main reasons people subscribe to Game Pass in the first place is because of the day-one releases. It’s not just a “back catalogue” service.
Game Pass regularly adds brand-new games the same day they launch. Award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong all arrived on the service day one.
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Spartan: Total Warrior
Viking: Battle for Asgard
Rise of the Argonauts
Re: Next Xbox Console Could Be Affected By PlayStation Pulling Back On PC
@GamingGod "The PC crowd are pretty undeserving of the best franchises in gaming imo"
“The PC crowd are undeserving of the best franchises” is hilarious considering those franchises are literally made on PCs.
Developers aren’t sitting there building games on a PlayStation or Xbox. The entire industry pipeline runs on PC workstations using engines, with code written, compiled, and debugged on PC before it ever touches a console devkit.
All the art, animation, level design, and programming happens on PC. Then the finished build gets exported to consoles like PlayStation or Xbox.
So the idea that PC players are “undeserving” of those games is pretty ironic when PC is the platform the entire industry is built on. Consoles are basically just another target platform for software that was created on PC in the first place.
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Re: StarCraft, Wolfenstein 3 & Fallout New Vegas Remake Could All Be In The Works Over At Xbox
@dreadful "MS are completely creatively bankrupt. It's so over. They can't create anything new"
This is just… objectively wrong.
Xbox, Activision, and Bethesda have launched or published new IP and new games like Ara: History Untold, Avowed, Deathloop, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Grounded, Hellblade, Hi-Fi Rush, Indiana Jones, Keeper, Ori, Pentiment, Redfall, Sea of Thieves, South of Midnight, Starfield, The Outer Worlds, and Towerborne. That’s without even touching upcoming new IP like Clockwork Revolution, Marvel’s Blade, and OD.
Revived old IP like Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Battletoads, Fable, Killer Instinct, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ninja Gaiden, and Psychonauts.
They’ve also taken existing franchises and pushed them into completely different genres, which is the opposite of creative bankruptcy: Gears Tactics (strategy), Halo Wars (RTS), Minecraft Dungeons and Minecraft Legends (action-RPG/strategy), and even Crash Team Rumble turning a platformer into a team-based multiplayer game.
Every major publisher does remakes alongside new IP. You don’t have to like Xbox’s output, but pretending they “can’t create anything new” is just ignoring reality.
Re: A Year Later, Microsoft Remains Highly Committed To Its 'This Is An Xbox' Campaign
@GamingGod "When Xbox do something good I’ll cheer it on."
First-party and major releases alone include Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Doom: The Dark Ages, Gears of War: Reloaded, Grounded 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, South of Midnight, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, The Outer Worlds 2, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Game Pass added award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
On top of that, Xbox landed huge ports like Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy XVI, Genshin Impact, Helldivers 2, Silent Hill 2, and Triangle Strategy.
If that’s “not a great year,” then the bar has officially left the planet!
Re: Five Reasons Why 2026 Is One Of The Most Important Years In Xbox History
@JayJ "there hasn't been much for the fans to cheer about"
First-party and major releases alone include Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Doom: The Dark Ages, Gears of War: Reloaded, Grounded 2, Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, South of Midnight, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, The Outer Worlds 2, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4
Game Pass added award-winning hits like Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
On top of that, Xbox landed huge ports like Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy XVI, Genshin Impact, Helldivers 2, Silent Hill 2, and Triangle Strategy.
If that’s “not a great year,” then the bar has officially left the planet!