The Web Graffiti: "Since the reveal of the Xbox One, Microsoft has found itself on the wrong end of the stick where gamers are concerned. Gamers who seem to think a video game machine must solely focus on games and much of nothing else, which is quite an immature thought. However, despite what hardcore gamers and the gaming press think of the Xbox One, the console is still poised to come out on top due to all its innovations."
With Arkane Austin no more and Lyon living for who knows how long, the superb Dishonored is in serious danger; Microsoft cannot be trusted.
I love the Dishonored series so much and really want Dishonored 3. Microsoft better not screw this up.
I mean, I think the fans will probably kill Arkane Lyon by cooking up reasons to hate whatever they do next without playing it. I've never seen a game so artificially disliked as Deathloop.
Lol, why don't we just say, we are worried about all studios owned by MS now. They will keep closing studios until they have none left ...🙄
Just merge them all into a single studio, have it churn out a single Call of Duty every year and call it a day, lol.
I think it's becoming clear based on matt bootys comments there's no future for any IP that can't sell above 10 million within the launch window. But is also a small game that gives them prestige
/S it's beyond a joke right now
Paul Thurrott in a recent episode commented on the on-going Microsoft fiasco hinting at more job losses and that "there's more to come".
There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future . Xbox has to pay Microsoft back. It might take two decades to do that.
I don’t understand what you’re saying. Xbox IS microsoft so there’s no “paying back “.
And MS gross profit in 2023 was over 140 billion dollars so forget your 2 decades.
Unless you mean the money MS invested in Xbox (acquisitions included) and the time it will take for xbox as a brand to gain that money back on it’s own, then yeah, that could take a while.
The better term to use might be return on investment, xbox is simply a division of Microsoft one that MS can easily do away with if profit margins are not met. So in that regard he's right, if xbox isn't showing the expected return on investment the higher ups are expecting than it's unlikely Microsoft will acquire any other studios any time soon, especially if they are spending billions buying developers just to shut them down in the end.
Xbox is a division that they discussed shutting down but doubled down on after Gamepass was pitched.
It needs to make money at some point. Big money.
According to Statista the net income of Microsoft is about $72.4 billion dollars which is a bit lower than last year profit. That is almost as much as Activision's acquisition but I assume that would be a one off since it costs so much plus I see how their focus has been shifted to AI, thus any major future investments will probably be in that area.
@romulus23
That is not why MS buys studios. They might continue to buy because it's about taking that sweet sweet IP out of the corporate husks of their acquisitions.
“There won't be no more acquiring game publishers from Microsoft in the future”
No bro, there do be is for Microsoft not acquiring for what is now if not what it be is 😂
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Let’s be real, this is the media spinning all the acquisitions and liquidations of said developers and spinning it to make M$ the villain.
This was bound to happen, a bigger slice of pie and cut costs, when the games come they stand to make more and that’s their agenda—it was the writing on the wall when the sales went through and legally all those who approved the sale and mergers knew this would happen.
Snowflakes need to realize business is ugly and you can cry all you want but this is how capitalism works. And it works.
That said, M$ needs to steer the narrative and grab hold of all this, make their plans known, hype the hell out of all those dead IP’s they plan to revive, and be honest about the timeline. This is likely to involve mobile and IP on other consoles, and most people realize that.
The problem is this company is incapable of being transparent and seems to often want to dissuade and confuse is customer base. The lack of E3 has hurt Microsoft and I don’t think they know how to properly or effectively market their brand anymore.
There really needs to be a class action lawsuit here. You buy these companies just to put people out of jobs. And it’s not like something happened to derail their plans this WAS the plan. Microsoft has no business in this space at all.
Microsoft has been doing this for years. They simply want the IPs. Look at Nokia. Look at Skype. This time it simply expanded to games. Gaming is not as important to Microsoft’s executives as it was to the founders too. Bill Gates was willing to sell the og Xbox at a loss. Steve Balmer approved the red ring of death fiasco. This CEO isn’t really a gamer.
Maybe it's time though to put a stop to it and use a big giant like Microsoft as a huge example to the rest of these big companies.
There has to be a line drawn somewhere.
People like the FTC and the like went against Microsoft yet their Actvision deal was still allowed to go through yet look what's happened...it's not even Acitivisions studios aswell, it's Bethesdas.
You do realize this happens in ALL industries? Or are you just saying this because it is Microsoft? In any case I feel for those that are being let go but the trch industry is suffering right now.
This absolutely does NOT happen all the time. Let me know the last time 1 company with a terrible product track record spent 100 billion onto acquire MULTIPLE successful companies in under a year only to shut them down and stop making their products regardless of how successful they were. Not merge them, completely shut them down.
And you can’t use Microsoft in your example.
Class action lawsuit? The law is on their side and protects them at all costs. There are no rules to protect the people at the bottom.
Ninja Theory, Perfect Dark, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Wolfenstein 3, Dishonored, Prey, Doom, Quake... something tells me that bad things are going to happen to these entities under Microsoft.
ID software, the makers of Doom and Wolfenstein that have been with us since 1991 could be gone and MS will keep the IPs.
I hope some of these studios can buy their freedom from MS otherwise this is going to be even more devastating for the industry and gamers.
That's exactly what I'm worried about. I've been a fan of id since Wolfenstein 3D and I'm honestly afraid.
Toys for Bob saw the writing on the wall and bought themselves out.
Wouldn't be the first time a company did that under MS either. Bungie and Twisted Pixel did the same. Considering what just happened, I can see some other devs trying to buy themselves out too.
Won't make a difference.
The whole structure needs to be overhauled. Anyone that replaces Phil will be no different than him, Mattrick, or anyone else.
Until the company changes how they go about business, nothing will change
I just don't have any idea what they would do , they have done sooo much damage on their xbox brand, they have a show at July or June I think, but will it even matter even they show amazing games, idkn
True,
But they may as well get it over with. Whether it happens now or later, the burning is going to hit the same.
Reality is the ONE move that can alleviate a lot of this is the one move they can't make. Remove day 1 from gamepass.
The Xbox brand is expanding, as an Xbox mobile game store is opening this coming July where Microsoft will brings its "first-party portfolio."
“Bond adds that they will start on the web”
This will go nowhere.
Nice knowing you Xbox. This is what happens when the house never gets cleaned.
The only this MS is expanding is the amount of feculence it sprays on everyone who just want to enjoy gaming and make games.
The best thing MS can do for the gaming industry is leave and never return.
How is it innovative? Many things have been done already, just check Comcast X1.
"TV and sports"
You can switch between TV and games with a remote controller, you only need to press it twice, or you can buy an innovative gaming console for $500 and yell at it.
"Kinect"
Nothing has been shown from MS to sell Kinect to the hardcore gamers, just some laggy games like the fighting one. It will end up being like the first Kinect
"Skype"
Behind a paywall, you can use it for free even in your PS VITA.
There is no innovation here, just ideas that have been put together and a lot of PR talking
'Xbox One will win because I said so' is all I got from the article. What's so innovative about X1? kinect 2.0? things already available on Xbox 360. Saying the core gamers and press don't matter, you're clearly delusional and in denial. That said, what caused all of these 180s by MS. It's wasn't the M$heep or apologist. It was the press and core gamers that made X1 unattractive for even the casuals. MS didn't see any of the pre-orders from casuals flowing in hence the 180s. I'm not surprise people still think X1 will come out on top, after all, people did defend Xbox One original announcement.
if MS made a kinectless SKU and advertise the hell out CoD (PSN's Most played game) and all other big 3rd party games like GTA having dedicated server support(less lag, less disconnections and more player count)
i think xbox one one can easily compete or beat ps4, it just need to be at the same price to do that
imagine how many crazy online people are gonna get an X1 over ps4 for that, same price, much better online gameplay
it's only a matter of time before MS remove mandatory kinect, free forza 5 and fifa 14 are huge signs of them wanting to move the 500$ model as fast as possible before introducing a 399$ SKU or a 350$ SKU kinectless one
Edit:LoL @ disagrees, looks like logic and reason are nowhere to be found on N4G, some people here are too emotional and confined to think outside the box
I agree that in the end XB1 will sell more or "win", after the initial anticipation of the PS4 wears off, and we realize there really isn't anything special about it...people will look to XB1 exclusives (that weren't already playing them) and then realize how much better the network is, and start doing all of their online play on XBL...it'll happen, but no doubt at first PS4 will take the lead, perhaps by a lot, but the fact that graphically both consoles are so similar now doesn't bode well for PS4 being as their only real advantage is a more powerful GPU, that is already easy to create for. No doubt games on both systems will get better, but the magic behind the PS4 GPU is no mystery...in fact it's greatest strength is that it's already optimized.
LOL, Ok good luck with that. LOL