The free-to-play model has developed into one of the most dominant demographics in gaming, and it may be powerful enough to swallow the console industry whole if they do not change.
While on stage with Dina Bass at The Bloomberg Technology Summit the President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, was asked about the Xbox studio closures of Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios
Of course she did. She's part of the problem and will just tow the company line.
Bloomberg’s Dina Bass could barely read her scripted question without looking at her notes, whilst Sarah Bond who WAS expecting the question spoke without saying anything of substance or answering the question in any meaningful way. Clearly she’s had the same expert PR training as Phil, but this avoidance was disrespectful. In time the short-sighted decision to shut down Tango Gameworks will be seen as of the most notorious examples why Phil Spencer messed up his tenure in charge of Xbox. That’s a fully built out talented team that could’ve been put to work on any project.
Additionally, Phil Spencer should not be using Sarah Bond as a patsy for his mistakes- he should be answering that question.
She's playing her role. There's absolutely nothing any of them can say other than the truth, this is about profit margins and not quality, so they just don't answer anything and wait for gamers to forget.
I always wondered why xbox had multiple leaders with similar titles like Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, like, how many heads do you actually need?
Seems to me it would be more cost efficient to cut 2 of them instead of all those studios.
While many gaming layoffs are cruel, Tango Gameworks being culled after Hi-Fi Rush doesn't even make sense.
Good read. I think the point is important. Cuz the message it sends is, make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down. How the fuck are you supposed to feel any sense of job security under those conditions. The level of core incompetence at play in the upper levels of this industry is staggering. This is common sense shit. You can’t chase trends on a 2 year cycle when games take fucking 6-8 years to make. Just let artists fucking art for gods sake. They don’t understand the basic principle that they’re all haggling for the same slice of fucking pie and the market will not bear it. Find a different fucking pie.
Might be a great game but it clearly did not make enough money to justify having the team make another game (under the MS umbrella).
It's never been just about whether your game is good or bad. The industry is full of great/underrated games that have a cult following or critical acclaim, but that fail to make great sales. Sad but true. It's a high stakes game, and at the end of the day, companies have to be profitable and make profitable investments. At the very least, there has to be the expectation of a long-term profit even if not profitable today. That goes for anything, no matter if the company is gigantic or a tiny mom-and-pop. We don't have to like it, but our buying habits played a hand in creating this monster.
I will keep harping that the industry has overreached its actual market and that it will implode. That implosion is already starting.
I partially agree with what you're saying in that companies need to sell well to make it in the industry. Something I've said again and again. Sony and Nintendo understand this about gaming by selling the game for as long as you can, then drop it on a service for additional revenue. It's why you won't see Sony and Nintendo expensively developed games on a service day one. It doesn't make business sense to do so.
The thing is about Tango is that they weren't given a chance after the acquisition when their game was shadow dropped on a console where gamers are told to not buy games but to rent them on a service for pennies. That kills day one sales even for small indie like developers who have big budgets for their company size.
Microsoft destroyed them in favor of pushing their services over investing in these developers futures or their games they created.
“…make a bad game? Well shut you down. Make a good game? We still might shut you down.”
I got chills. It shouldn’t have come to this.
Insider reveals Xbox's Perfect Dark reboot struggles in development, far from ready despite ongoing efforts.
The hits just keep on coming. Will not be surprised if this gets canned. It already got rebooted and they had to bring on an outside studio to try and help developement. Some of the original creatives have left the project.
But I will say, just wait until the MS showcase. If you don't see it there, then alarm bells should start ringing.
God, please don't screw this one up Microsoft! I am keeping my expectations super low, but Perfect Dark (the original) holds such a special place in my childhood. I want this to turn out well SO bad.
Just cancel it because we know you won’t be happy with its sales performance while giving it away on GP day one. GP is the biggest issue for developers and that affects the sales. No one can deny that now. GP equals to good deal for gamers and bad deals for AAA development. Take two CEO said it and he was 100% right. There are certain games that make sense on GP but not every game. 20 million gamers playing a game on GP doesn’t mean much to MS it seems because they still want sales. Just please start releasing all games on other platforms otherwise Phil is next now. You can’t spend 80 billion and be this bad
The studio was founded in 2018. It's still not adding up in my head how it can take 6 years to develop a game, with a whole dev studio working on it.
This is the only upcoming MS game I'm looking forward to. I hope it doesn't get canceled.
"The free-to-play model has developed into one of the most dominant demographics in gaming..."
LOLOLOLOLOL Oh Examiner! Where's the money to be made in free-to-play? In microtransactions? In advertisement?
Free-to-play doesn't even dominate on PC gaming (where it originated), so why in the would would it be essential for console gaming?
If this were the last generation it wouldn't be due to Free to play. It would be because of the high cost of AAA games and the rate of which developers and publishers are closing their doors.
why would anyone want cloud gaming,????!! we work too hard to be settled with cloud merchandise we cant touch and value, ?? thats just dumb, i and the rest of the world want pysyical copies we can touch and keep for years and years, consoles will never go away, never.
I've been playing the beta for dust 514 the new FTP game on ps3. The menus and how to buy things for your epuiptment are very confusing and you have to spend real money to use voice chat. Its actually kind of annoying because you have to replenish inventory items and dropsuits and all kinds of stuff. Most can be done with in game credit but I would rather just play socom or call of duty i think.
Free to play has been happening for years now. I don't see it replacing consoles.