230°

Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Promises to "Nurture What Has Made Blizzard Unique" Following Acquisition

During BlizzCon 2023, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer delivered a promising message to Blizzard Entertainment fans.

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techraptor.net
XiNatsuDragnel179d ago

I hope so Phil I really hope so.

Obscure_Observer179d ago

I´m not expecting a miracle.

But I´m 100% sure that Blizzard and its games will get a far better treatment under Xbox than they had under Kotick in more than a decade.

Godmars290179d ago

By what basis since MS is of the habit of turning over established IPs to studios other than ones that made them?

And what is Activision at this point other than COD, Diablo and Overwatch?

Obscure_Observer178d ago

"By what basis since MS is of the habit of turning over established IPs to studios other than ones that made them?"

Who cares? If the ones who made it don´t want or can´t make it, what´s the problem?

"And what is Activision at this point other than COD, Diablo and Overwatch?"

That´s exactly the point I´m talking about, dude. I´m expecting for legacy IPs to make a comeback now that ABK is under Xbox, since Kotick couldn´t give a sh!t about those games.

Gamingsince1981179d ago

MS won't fix anything , they never have, why would this time be different ?

DOMination-178d ago

When you look back through the last decade, it's hard to argue with this.

The only studio that has truly flourished were Playground Games and I'd even suggest that since MS acquired them, FH4 & 5 were the worst in the series due to huge issues not being fixed now for 5+ years due to the focus on live service style weekly/monthly updates.

1Victor178d ago

Way too many studios have been gutted by Microsoft to the point of closing or made into a joke as far as I know only bungie was able to break their chains and ran away as fast and far as they could unlike rare and lionheart.
Phil can say whatever he wants but as usual expect half truths, full lies or Ignorance of the situation.

Jin_Sakai179d ago (Edited 179d ago )

Anytime you see “Phil Spencer Promises” you know not to believe it.

XiNatsuDragnel179d ago

Anti-naruto speech but it's true

Vits179d ago

I don't know if that is possible. Most of the folks that made the Blizzard that we loved aren't in the company anymore.

Plague-Doctor27178d ago

Yeah its weird to think but the "Blizzard" we all know and love is from 15+ years ago

TricksterArrow178d ago

Came in to say that. You are completely right. If we go by recent talents, even Jeff Kaplan jumped ship. I know some people NEVER liked Overwatch, but it was in a MUCH better state when he was at the helm. You could see he cared about the project a lot. But care can only lead you to one place only in greedy companies like this... out the door.

isarai179d ago (Edited 179d ago )

You mean like you did with Bungie/343i, Rare, Arkane and Bethesda? Plus like a lot of these legacy studios, almost if not all the vets who made it special are gone

Chevalier178d ago

Head of Tango has left recently too

Lightning77177d ago

He's been trying to retire for sometime now. Hes helped the next creative director John Johanas. High FI was his creation from scratch not Shinji Mikami.

No MS had nothing to do with HIFI before you start.

Lightning77177d ago (Edited 177d ago )

For once in your life I have to give you your flowers. Take a lap, dance in the streets you finally got something right. It took you a million years but you finally did it.

He spoke candidly about Retiring but decided not but left Bethesda. 👏 👏. I'm happy for you for getting something right It won't happen ever again buy hey I give props this time.

It's 20 and 1 you finally got one over me.

Lightning77177d ago

I wasn't talking you I was talking to Israi about his comment kiddo. I heard a rumor awhile ago about him retiring but it was him leaving instead. In my head I thought "retirement" a slight mess up done by my own hand. Like I said, pat yourself on the back. It's a small win leaving vs Retirement but hey it's facts and I don't argue facts. You should be proud.

Lightning77177d ago

343 got gutted because of bad management and slow and uninspired season releases (now they're releasing one of the best seasons yet) similar to BUNGIE recently. Redfall had nothing to do with MS. People leave all the time doesn't mean anything. With that logic Connie Booty and Jim Ryan being gone is bad management. Again with your logic Sony layoffs and downsizing recently is bad management also?

isarai177d ago (Edited 177d ago )

You must have a fetish for being wrong bro, that's the only explanation I can think of for how you act around here 🤣

Chevalier177d ago (Edited 177d ago )

@Lightning

"He's been trying to retire for sometime now."

Oh really?! Just wanted to throw in an idiotic comment as usual. Wrong again as usual too. He's not retiring at all.

https://videogames.si.com/n...

So how do you like your crow to be served?! Studio wasn't allowing him the freedom to do what he wanted to so he left his own studio under Microsoft to do what he wants to. Damn it only took 5 seconds to prove you wrong again.

Here Shinji Mikami in his own words:

“Now that I've broken the spell of non-competition on myself,” he wrote, “I guess I should get to work.”

Yeah definitely sounds like someone retiring right?! He's only making new games.

Lightning77177d ago

"Oh really?! Just wanted to throw in an idiotic comment as usual."

As usual!? I'm not you don't ever compare me to you kiddo.
https://www.gamespot.com/ar...

He left earlier this year yes he retired from Tango at Bethesda, BETHESDA Show me where I said he was exiting the game industry? Please show me.

Gee what do you know it only took me 5 minutes to correct you as always. You throughim false things I Never said and made yourself look dumb as always kiddo.

You'll never win anything against me you and I both know that, you're not smart enough, never ever will be so back to bridge you go.

"Damn it only took 5 seconds to prove you wrong again."

I would love to see this where have you ever proved me wrong go ahead and tell me.

Chevalier177d ago (Edited 177d ago )

@Lightning

"Show me where I said he was exiting "

The part where you deflected and made it seem like he was retiring. Hence you're idiotic and wrong. He's doing no such thing. He didn't 'retire' from Bethesda, he F'n left which isn't the same. Lol.

Leaving a company is NOT retiring stupid. Because by that idiotic logic for example I retired when I left my last job. I did no such thing. I moved onto a better higher paying job. I didn't 'retire'.

So again wrong. You're doing mental gymnastics trying to backtrack right now when you were straight up wrong like usual.

https://www.gematsu.com/202...

"“I am writing today to let you know that studio head Shinji Mikami has decided to leave Tango Gameworks in the coming months,”

But yeah okay. Where anywhere does the word 'retire' show up. Bethesda even wished him well on whatever he planned to do. What happened is there was speculation he was retiring which you assumed to be true without researching (no surprise there of course). So again you're wrong.

https://www.gamesradar.com/...

"Mikami departs Tango at age 57, which naturally leads to questions surrounding his possible retirement. The Evil Within director has spoken pretty candidly in the past about retiring but has maintained over the last few years that he wants to direct one final game before he hangs up his hat. "

Lightning77177d ago

Nice way of saying that I'm right since you can't point out how I'm wrong nor have a counter argument but go ahead and entertain me on how I'm "wrong" though.

Chevalier177d ago

"he retired from Tango at Bethesda"

I knew were dumb and you might have difficulty with English, but, 'retiring' is NOT the same as just up and leaving. By your stupid logic when you switched jobs you 'retired'.

Here's the Oxford definition to dumb it down for you:

"to leave your job and stop working"

Mikami left Bethesda. He didn't stop working because he's still making games. He paused because of a non-compete which is not the same as retiring. So again you are wrong.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 177d ago
LordoftheCritics179d ago

I don't think you can manufacture talent.

Old Blizzard died a long time ago.

jznrpg179d ago

Blizzard has been garbage for a long time now. Same with Activision. Good luck with that.

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330°

Square Enix Declares $140m Loss Amid Game Pipeline Shakeup

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth publisher Square Enix has declared a $140m loss based on a shakeup of its internal development pipeline.

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techraptor.net
Furesis16h ago

What are they doing over there? Sounds like they canceled something big. I read a rumor a while back about ff9 remake . Here "Final Fantasy IX has gone through a very challenging development, the game is still in progress but may undergo changes drastic enough that we won't hear about it for a couple of years."
This could be one of the reasons if the rumor is true. That was Silknight i don't know how credible he is but it's something and it would make sense.

-Foxtrot15h ago

I hope IX is still on the cards

Just a straight up remake which they expand a little bit nothing over ambitious

If IX dosent happen then VI and VIII will never be thought of.

Kakashi Hatake4h ago

6 and 8 were way more p popular games despite today's cult following of 9.

TiredGamer13h ago

What are they doing? Sales are falling and the costs are out of control. Big releases need to be absolute sales home runs now, and Final Fantasy sales have stagnated.

Now we know why Square didn’t fall over themselves to remake the original FF7 all these years ago. It certainly wasn’t a license to print money, at least not with what the expectations were. Each of these full on remakes drains an enormous amount of company resources for a razor thin profit margin.

TwoPicklesGood13h ago

Breaking the game up into multiple parts was a mistake IMO.

blackblades12h ago

The loses came from cancelling games nothing else.

shadowT15h ago

Do not miss Final Fantasy 16. Great game!

raWfodog15h ago

I'm waiting for them to release the complete edition bundle, but it's definitely on my list.

PhillyDonJawn14h ago

Wth is going on with the gaming industry?

mandf13h ago

Corporate investors taking everything

TiredGamer13h ago

Not rocket science. Compare sales numbers, development cycles, and budgets to the previous gens. We are all collectively burning up the industry from the inside out. Expectations are ludicrously high now for every release and sales are dropping for even the most prestigious of series.

We used to be satisfied paying $50-60 for a game that took 1/100th the budget and staff to make. Now gamers feel cheated if they have to pay the same for a game that took 100x the budget. We may be reaching the end of the line for this model of gaming.

wiz71919h ago

@tiredgamer I think your point is one that ppl don’t understand and you hit it on the nose .. some gamers don’t want to take accountability but it’s some of the gamers fault the industry is where it’s at .. we as gamers set the standards for the industry not the shareholders , ppl forget that the shareholders and the industry want and need OUR Money. Both the Xbox and PlayStation are seeing a drop in hardware , the industry is very stagnant right now.

Tacoboto11h ago

Speaking to Square:

Turns out their mismanagement wasn't related to the western studios they dumped to Embracer, but their own fault.

With regards to Xbox - a good way to kill your brand is to pull support on high quality titles and only dump B and C-tier titles to it

With regards to PC - Epic Games Story exclusivity for any duration and piss-poor optimization will hurt you.

With regards to FF Pixel Remasters - y'all messed up by barely releasing them on physical, like wtf that was free money!

And lastly, you don't help a franchise by releasing a mainline title that undermines every title that came before it. FFXVI was a DMC-like with bottom-of-the-barrel side quests and I can't imagine that helping Rebirth at all considering its marketing is directly tied to how big that game is.

Tacoboto9h ago

Sony is getting their best titles and with the most polish, so what about it? Nintendo gets their top properties too, for titles that can run on Switch hardware.

It's the other fanbases that get the second- and third-class treatment from Square. If that's due to agreements with Sony, that's not a Sony issue but a Square one for accepting those terms. Sony is doing its best to look out for Sony.

TiredGamer14h ago

The industry implosion is continuing. Sky high budgets, prolonged development windows, stagnant sales numbers, and falling currency values (inflation) are wreaking havoc on the legacy industry. AAA games will slowly become the rarity.

CS714h ago

Sad. Rebirth was one of my favorite games in a long time. Should have sold more.

CrimsonWing6913h ago

Oh I’m with you. What’s worse is they can say, “Well we tried to make this amazing game and spend all this money on, but not enough people showed an interest. So no more of these since we can’t take a hit like that.”

The industry is going to take a dramatic shift. Mark my words on this.

rpvenom12h ago(Edited 12h ago)

I think there is quite a large portion of individuals like myself who held out on buying it on PS5 because I can get it on PC eventually. To be able to mod the game and also have custom graphical settings to my liking

gold_drake2h ago

same

but im not sure if it matters at all. im sure they made sony pay a hefty sum for the 3parter to come on ps5 exclusively. so watever they made in sales, might have come bk in profits for square, but i dont know
and we dont know what "underperformed" even means for square.

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290°

Xbox Games Showcase Followed by [REDACTED] Direct Airs June 9

- Xbox Wire - Mark your calendars! The Xbox Games Showcase followed by [REDACTED] Direct airs June 9. More info inside.

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news.xbox.com
bionicstar15h ago

Will they show Fable 4, Stalker 2, GoW 6 & Perfect Dark?

PhillyDonJawn14h ago

Crossing fingers for Fable and perfect dark. And State of Decay 3

RaidenBlack9h ago(Edited 9h ago)

And maybe Clockwork Revolution, South of Midnight, Contraband, Project 007 & OD? lol
and whatever happened to Everwild ?
+ that rumored Wu Tang RPG

Sonic18818h ago(Edited 8h ago)

Will they have official release dates and gameplay?

anast14h ago

Another game pass event with their plans to go all streaming.

14h ago
Lightning7713h ago

It's an Xbox showcase that they have every year.

Make smarter comments for once.

anast10h ago(Edited 10h ago)

Tell me what a smarter comment is.

If they don't sell game pass the entire time, then I will be wrong. All of this can be proven once the show gets underway. Let's wait and see.

13h ago
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Lightning779h ago(Edited 9h ago)

Wow too easy.

You went from MS going all streaming to selling gamepass content in which we all know they are.

Which one is it?

Pretty clear you don't know what a smart comment is at least you admit you don't know.

9h ago
anast5h ago(Edited 5h ago)

"Another game pass event with their plans to go all streaming."

It's both. I would worry about your own intelligence at this point. It seems that there is not enough to go around for you to worry about how smart other people are.

Lightning775h ago

It's just a regular event announcing games. Nice one captain obvious they're gonna mention gp stuff like they do every year what else is new.

The all streaming part is just you, being you I guess. They have streaming options but going all streaming again is just you pulling stuff outta thin air.

anast5h ago

You don't know what a smart comment is or isn't. You're welcome for the help.

Lightning771h ago

No you said something dumb then you tried to back track and mention GP.

Again make smart comments for once.

+ Show (6) more repliesLast reply 1h ago
darthv7214h ago

Wonder if they will address the handheld rumors....?

jimb0j0nes14h ago

For a brief moment I thought we might get a whole Direct for Gears 6 - seems like it's COD though!

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60°

Here's Everything I Expect From The Witcher 4's Combat

Danish from eXputer: "The Witcher's upcoming sequel needs to overhaul the series' combat system if it wants to make a big splash among gamers."

on_line_forever20h ago

after what we see ( 2015 - 2024 ) in dark souls 3, blood borne , sekiro , dragon's dogma 2 , rise of the Ronin combat they should really careful and bring very good combat in Witcher 4 this time