Microsoft Wants New Exclusives For Current, Future Xbox Generations

NowGamer: Platform holder looking to add 'new blood' to AAA stable.

[Hands Up For Games]

Get on it MS, the more (quality) Dev houses you have, the better the Games you can make.

It really is as simple as that.

[NukaCola]

1. Don't put restrictions or stipulations on your devs.
2. Let devs be creative, even if it seems like a bad idea or your marketing gurus dont agree. Creativity is the answer.

[Game13a13y]

I'm sorry to point this out, but MS and "creativity" have never really belonged in the same sentence, MS and "immitations" might sound more coherent

[ApplEaglElephant]

thats almost laughable as MS telling us how Kinect is hardcore.

yep. MS did actually tell us Kinect is hardcore.

Also, Gears 3 isnt owned by MS. EPIC owns them. MS just got exclusivity deal for first 3 Gears game.

Epic can now do w/e they want including making it multiplat.

[snipes101]

Like I really have no idea where MS's head is at. Why the hell has it taken them so long to decide "y'know, maybe we will stand to benefit from more exclusive titles that aren't kinect related."

Good lord. I love their system but get real.

[Skip_Bayless]

There needs to be more exclusives in general. I beleive all games should be exclusive to one system besides sports games. It makes for better games and increases system sales. The only benefit for multiplatform is the developer and publisher makes more money.

More money doesn't mean better games. It just means they get more complacent like Modern Warfare, Assasins Creed, Resident Evil etc. Instead of getting a 9 rating game we get a 8 rating game.

[ZippyZapper]

@Game13a13y you mean like Sony imitated Live, achievments, video/music/game marketplace, arcade, dlc, in game texting (can't do cross game chat) Uncharted (Gears clone) and live console updates?

[Gamer1982]

Maybe they should finally pony up and talk to Sony? Imagine a console by both them companys? Somebody needs to take on the juggernaut that is Nintendo. They worked with big companys in the past like Nokia for example. They provide the software and Nokia the hardware. All Ms do with 360 is provide software they don't manufacture it. All hardware is from various other companys which Sony could provide. So then we could have 2 consoles. One for hardcore and one for the family gamer.

The problem right now is 90% of games released are on 2 consoles looking practically the same so consumers are going for the cheapest in most cases especially in US that's why MS sell so much. However without competition from Sony they could sell at reasonable price and not have to keep selling lower than ps3 just to keep up sales.

[AngryTypingGuy]

Gears going multiplatform could happen but MS will most likely make it very worth their while for Epic to keep it exclusive.

[BISHOP-BRASIL]

Creativity maybe is the answer for us, but not for MS. MS isn't really good in maintaining studios, just look at their backgroud this generation. What they are really good is at taking a game that someone else is doing, make an agreement for exclusive, market it, sells millions, order sequels... Rinse and repeat as far as it profitable.

When MS looks for new exclusives it doesn't mean they are going to invest in new studios, contract some key artists to realize their visions, nothing like that... It means Gears is now out of contract and MS is again on the hunt for publisher-free developers with potentially successfull game projects going on that they can buy exclusive distribution rights.

I'm not saying this is a bad business model or that MS is evil or whatever... As far as we know their extra support and budget for funding third party exclusives can very well improve a game's qualities... Just saying, don't expect MS to take the risk of a real creative route, it's not their stuff and it's better this way.

I mean, the problem with MS is that they never throw devs a bone... Look at Bungie, MS landed their eyes in Marathon in 1999 and they bought Bungie right away. Not long after that, Bungie would be creating Halo, which was basically an spiritual successor of Marathon. 10 years later and Bungie never got to work in anything else than Halo... Before MS came in, Bungie were a developer who worked not just on Marathon, but in many other franchises in multiple genres.

At least when MS buy exclusive rights to ONE game franchise, they are buying exactly what they want and the devs are free to do what they want the rest of the time. When MS buys a studio, this devs are forced to do only one game over and over again and the moment MS feels like the one game is no longer worth it, they close the studio (again, just look at MS background)... The only exception is Rare, which have varied games around, but 99% of their attention is in Kinect, which require a different approach, they probably would still be doing Perfect Dark games otherwise.

[Silver_Faux]

I prefer my ps3 these days but you should never forget, Microsoft were involved with some truly fantastic games back in the day. Age of Empires and my personal favourite FREELANCER come to mind.

[saladthieves]

Why didn't they do this SOONER THAN LATER???

[palaeomerus]

Because it makes virtually no difference in sales. It's a waste of energy and resources to chase exclusives that might sell around 4 million IF you are lucky and are more likely to fight to get to one million. Exclusives are only good news for console fanboys and exclusivity nerds and press guys who need to have something like this to argue about to fill space on game sites and get requoted to the blogs.

Everyone else just wants good fun games to buy and doesn't get any enjoyment whatsoever from what platforms they conspicuously aren't on.

[kikizoo]

yeah right paelomeryq, and without exclusives, it's probably smarter to buy a console without bluray, with no free online, etc ?

your statement is good, if only one console it's on the market (but i undertsand, like all the xfanboy since a few years without great exclusives, you have decided that it's not [email protected])

[Biggest]

You asked and palaeomerus gave you the perfect example. Xbox fans don't care about exclusives. Why give them anything more than they want? Feed them sales numbers to ensure they feel validated in purchasing a console that has yet to match the value of a certain competitor. Afterall. . .

"Exclusives are only good news for console fanboys and exclusivity nerds and press guys who need to have something like this to argue about to fill space on game sites and get requoted to the blogs." Exclusives are not good news for gamers according to Xbox fans.

[Why o why]

Perfect pale...... Laud what you have, downplay what you dont. You are not ms or one of their shareholders so your angle of desire should be games.... question is are you a gamer or an accountant that trolls on game sites.

This is good news for ms. Its never too late to increase your capacity to make more games. Only a dcikhead would act like they dont want more...we all want more, its human nature. Furthermore what's wrong with wanting more of what makes us gamers. Some people baffle me

[P_Bomb]

Good games/good IPs are never a waste of energy & resources. They're what it's all about.

If you want a game on another system bad enough, you'll probably find a way to play it eventually, be it a friend's house or whatever. If not, you can still respect the dev's contribution to gaming.

Exclusives aren't all mad gambles either. Multiplats bomb all the time, critically and/or commercially. Most don't sell 4 mil' if they're lucky either. Neither Mass Effect game has done 4 mil' on *any* console. Should BioWare dump Mass Effect? Hardly. And neither should 1st party devs retire their LBPs or Forzas.

[Venjense]

I think I remember Cliffy B saying that he wanted to makes multiplats now which makes sense. I doubt a guy like that wants to be tied to one series for another 3 games.

[JellyJelly]

Looking at the sales and reception of Gears of War I wouldn't be surprised if he'd be pretty happy to continue.

[gotgame1985]

every interview i seen cliffy B in he always say in doesn't know what microsoft next move is so the don't know what theres will be, so that alone tells you that the two still have somthing up there sleeves. i think the game sony was making with them was canceled then again maybe not.

[lategamer]

In the past five years, Epic (the company Cliff works for) has worked on the following games:

*Gears 1-3
*Unreal Tourny 3
*Infinity Blade 1 & 2 (with Chair Entertainment)
*Shadow Complex (with Chair Ent.)
*Bulletstorm

Epic, and Cliff are not "tied to one series". Furthermore, Gears is a very high profile title for the 360, and in collaberation with Microsoft (marketing, promos, etc.) the series (Gears) has sold over 6 million (Probably closer to 9/10 actually).

[skyward]

Not sure about Ryse - although we haven't seen much of it to be fair. Do they need more shooters though?

[iamnsuperman]

The thing about Ryse is all we have seen is a CGI trailer. Big questions like is it on rails? how well will the control be? have yet to be answered.

I think Microsoft need to deviate away from their traditional games. It is nice they want to make games for their fans but it would also be nice to expand.

[saladthieves]

I love shooters, but please, god forbid the next gen isn't full of more generic shooters after shooters!!

[frostyhat123]

This is a shocker.

[WitWolfy]

"this is a shooter"

There fixed it for ya!

[Noticeably_FAT]

Microsoft should do their own modern day first person shooter. I mean it would definitely sell. They bought Twisted Pixel recently, not sure there is a ton of inventive studios out there at the moment, but I wouldn't mind something new for the next generation. I don't think we'll get that this current generation though.

[StrongMan]

"Microsoft should do their own modern day first person shooter."

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

[Noticeably_FAT]

That's something with Kinect that was done by 505, I was thinking more along the lines of Modern Warfare type of game.

[gotgame1985]

you know I really have a feeling that twisted pixel will become Microsofts Naugthy Dog, 343 without a dout
will be there new Bungie. and one of the new studios they open up will also become big for them as well.

[krazykombatant]

Can they do something that isn't a FPS... God that genre has being waaaayyyy over done this generation.

[Disccordia]

How about a console age of empires?

[DasTier]

But not a port of AOE Online. I actually want a good AOE more akin to the 1st 2.

[lategamer]

Age of Empires, Forza, Gears (TPS), Fable (RPG), Kinect titles (Adventure, Sports), Project Draco. Happy?

[krazykombatant]

Age of Empires, was an idea. I personlly prefer to keep RTS games to my PC. Forza and gears ok sure but gears is a third party IP thats it. Fable is an absolute abomination, they should give the series a reboot. Kinect... I'll play with my if i want motion controls simple as that.

[MariaHelFutura]

MS needs to stop spending so much $$$ on ads and start buying studios to secure their future in this industry.

[gotgame1985]

microsoft is doing a good job in making the xbox the all in one box console, you are talking about them spending money on ads but look at how much money they are spending on making the xbox better. they have 4 new studios bought Skype and video surf which will be integrated in to the 360 and now they are starting new ips and all this with in six months. they are really treating the 360 like it is about to launch all over again. I also heard rumors that they are going to release some type of software that will up grade the graphics for the 360 around about 2013.

[Shadonic]

Good News they should really get some new exclusives and still keep up with the kinect stuff cause as a 360 owner i know most ps3 owners will constantly spam wheres the kinect games ? this year they did and BAM! like 20 new ones came out what they need to work on now is the quality and the immersion that immersion and accuracy is what makes players want to play the kinect games. They should push towards more fighting games for kinect. They really should also contact any potential they see on the web. Theres people who already have the the movement systems down for kinect and the only one that ive seen and liked by microsft is the ghost recon one which by the way should be implemented into a side missions arc in the game.

[P_Bomb]

EDIT: Oops wrong reply.

[Jdoki]

Nice to hear MS are looking to address their biggest weakness.

It's really annoyed me that after such a strong start they tailed off so badly after 2009. I bought my 360 Day 1, and was blown away by the graphics and the potential. Since then the momentum has really been lost as I'm not a fan of Kinect, and although Xbox Live is the best online service, it has a lot of stuff I'm not interested in.

[IAmCornHolio]

Microsofts weakness is that people will get on the internet and spend years badmouthing them because...

Linux users all badmouth Microsoft to no end????

Apple users all badmouth Microsoft to no end???

Google users all badmouth Microsoft to no end???

because... Well I'm not quite sure why.. But people make whole websites to try and articulate why they hate Microsoft so much... But is usually comes down to people being bitter that they are an aggressively competitive company.

But the general Microsoft hate stopped being rational years ago...

[StrongMan]

Another conspiracy theorist.

[rob6021]

If being aggressively competitive means sticking hidden charges on unsuspecting customers and rushing faulty hardware - that would generate a bit of resentment. Hardly irrational; I think people have clear genuine reasons for not liking Microsoft. If you honestly can't see any fault in the way Microsoft does business, maybe you need to start listening to these people you write off completely. Sony has faults, Nintendo has faults, who doesn't?

[hiredhelp]

Well said rob6021.
Not just consoles this dates back years when some you kids still in dippers or not even born. Pinching ideas underhand tactics, bullying and threats.

Today they pritty much do nearly everything above.
But for me they have help ruin this gen of consoles and future gaming, How? Easy they first to introduce online gaming as a subscription with was always free befor (dreamcast ps2,pc) not only that you had to host or jump into a hoted lobby.
Then they introduced DLC we know te reason for that thats ok but they had there chance to make that free but again they saw money to be made. Thanks ms for screwing gamers over.

BTW leave your disagrees below cos every disagree would proove how little just like ROB stated you do now.

As for them wanting studios thays great but how long till they drop them like they did with 360 in early years.

[tigertron]

Hopefully Microsoft will not only buy new franchises, but invest in new studios. I know its not cheap but it will be worth it in the end if they manage to create some more AAA franchises like Sony.

The 360 does have some quality exclusives like Halo, Gears and Alan Wake, but it really lacks in comparison to the PS3, lets face it.

[Disccordia]

They opened several studios about six months ago...

[BitbyDeath]

Those were for Kinect...

[Disccordia]

You must be Phill Spencer then if you know what games they are developing!

[DARK WITNESS]

oh wow, they have finally figured that out then? ok, now lets see them put their money where their mouth is!

It's all well and good saying that, now lets see it.

[Angerfist]

Obviously they need more then HALO Gears and Forza Next Gen, lookung forward to what they can acquire

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Well I'm glad they finally came (back?) to there senses.

[Venjense]

They're waisting Rare on Kinect games. Perfect Dark is a great property and could make an awesome SP focused FPS/RPG hybrid with a deep story line.

Crackdown 2 didn't have to be some quick cash-in, it could have been a AAA open-world tittle if they took original concepts and over-halled it and spent a little money on graphics and story.

It seems MS doesn't really invest much money into it's own studios, give devs 50 mill each to make some AAA exclusives and see how good a Perfect Dark and Crackdown game can be. They spent 500 mill on Kinect marketing, give you're own studio's the money needed for AAA games.

Treat Rare and Real Time World like the talented devs they are similar to how Sony treats Guirilla and Sucker Punch, give them a real budget and good games will come out of them IMO.

Sure Too Human was crap but don't let one bad apple spoil the bunch.

[lategamer]

I'm sorry to say, Rare had their chance. Since the Xbox, they've created:
*Grabbed by the Ghoules -> meh
*Conker: L&R -> Good, but it's a port
*Viva Pinata 1 &2 -> Great games, seriously.
*Kameo -> Felt meh, the sequel looked terrible judging by the leaked concept art.
*PDZ -> Trash :|
*Banjo Kazooie: N&B -> Seriously Rare? Seriously? Fans want Banjo Three but you give us this?

I agree on Crackdown. I'm hoping Crackdown 3 delivers. And Real Time didn't make Crackdown 2, Ruffian Games did.

[maniacmayhem]

They need to revitalize some of the IP's they already own.

Conker
Perfect Dark
Crackdown
Kameo
Lost Odyssey

Are just a few that need to be made by QUALITY developers.

[AmaZinG]

Epic and 343 are reasons enough to own the next Xbox. The rest is just an Extra.

[lumley666]

hmmm im not to sure on that, m$ dont own epic so anything cud happen, look at valve and theres my point lol

[Conzul]

How about they bring back the cancelled "Project Lonestar", a.k.a. Freelancer 2. If THAT was an Xbox 720 exclusive, I might just be persuaded to buy one.

[lumley666]

m$ are like 6 yrs into the 360 life cycle and they are just doing this? they have had far too little exclusives, this shud of been there game plan from the begining of xbox. while the big 3 have all made errors this gen this is the area where sony have excelled, every year they release more and more fantastic exclusives which i enjoy most of, if sony manage to release the ps4 at rufly the same time as the next xbox microsoft will need to be ready with plenty of good exclusives, gona be really interesting to see how next gen plays out, iv been pleasently suprized how well xbox has sold this gen, all be it in my opinion through sonys mistakes and arragence this gen. il always be a playstation guy but but i wish m$ all the sucess becos compitition is what will keep things getting better n better

[BitbyDeath]

I think they've been having financial issues. (Obviously not MS as a whole just the gaming division)
Hopefully they can fix themselves up and start getting more first party devs.

Competition is always good for us consumers.

[blackburn10]

When the next gen comes and developers are refusing to make games for you or leaving you out for their own reasons or situations you will regret that you don't have any companies to make exclusive games for you. If Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft's systems end up on the same level next gen what is the incentive to buy a next gen Microsoft console?

They barely kept up with Nintendo this gen and barely managed to out pace Sony. Nintendo and Sony have their people making games that a specifically tailored for their next gen systems.They can't refuse to make games for them or keep it on other systems and not theirs.

What is Microsoft going to do when third parties start giving their games to other systems and refusing to give them special treatment like DLC or timed releases? What are they going to do when Bungie, Epic and maybe even Turn 10 gravitates towards other systems? How long are they going to play the 'looks slightly better on my system card.'? People still keep saying 'exclusives don't matter' but its what defines your system.

No one will care next gen once games are multiplat which system it is on unless you have games no other system has. Why should I buy a next gen 360 if the Wii U or PS4 is on equal ground with it? Why do you think Nintendo has still managed to hang on with two failed system and a weaker system this gen? Mario and company.The 3DS was going down in flames until Mario and Zelda mad the scene. The people who keep saying exclusives don't matter are the ones hoping that everything will just be on one system so they won't have to but multiple systems. Microsoft better have some exclusives next gen or they will lose big time

[gypsygib]

Bungie's next game is a multiplat and is being published by Activision so they lost Bungie already.

I still don't understand why they sold Bungie, they're the creators of their biggest franchise.

It was probably to make some quarterly earning report look good to investors or some other short-sighted financial goal.

[BitbyDeath]

Bungie left on their own accord.
Halo was and still is really popular but doing the same game over and over again will get to you eventually.

[YourFlyness]

If the PS4 is the developers paradise like reports have been saying about its ease to develop on. MS is going to need some exclusives or they are history (in this industry)

[ZippyZapper]

What reports? Ohhhhhh you mean "rumors" if Sony uses the cell then they are going to face the same problem they had with PS3.

[andibandit]

ROFL!!!!!!!!

PS4 developers paradise

HAHAHAHAhahahahah

[IHateYouFanboys]

Quantity of First Party Exclusives means very little to anyone other than fanboys in the real world. Quality is much more important.

for all the PS3 exclusives that are released, if you look at the top 50 games for each console on Metacritic, the PS3 only has something like 1 more exclusive in the top 50 than the 360 does (there was an article about it the other day actually).

in the PS3s case having first party developers DOES mean they can get more out of the console simply because the console is a pain in the arse to get to do simple things compared to the competition, so any insider knowledge is a god send. the 360 though, its all laid out right there for developers. theres no real insider knowledge to be had. good Third Party developers know just as much as the first party ones.

yes the PS3 has more exclusives - but theyre not all great games. lots of them are, in fact, pretty rubbish. even more are mediocre. only a handful are genuinely great games - and that handful is pretty much matched by microsofts first/third party exclusives in both quality and numbers. for every resistance/killzone theres a halo, for every uncharted theres a gears, for every GT theres a forza (plus 2 more forzas for good measure).

[Why o why]

...and for every lbp there's a . . . .

for every infamous there's a . . .

for ever heavy rain there's a . . .

for every demons souls there's a . . .

for every mlb there's a . . .

and when the games aren't top notch according to some there are still no better alternatives ie

motorstorm

wipeout

yakuza

point is numbers do count and the evidence that they used to matter to many 360 owners is readily available if you only check out this very same sites articles from a few years back so take off your goggles and you'd see there's plenty of quality.

if you only play top o top games then its your loss as this year would of been pretty baron for you until the last quarter and that's including multiplatform games lmao

[gypsygib]

Just because a game isn't in the top of metacritic doesn't mean it's not a great game.

The Infamous and Killzone series are among my favourite this gen and their ratings are in mid-high 80s.

A lot of the times the difference between an 85 and 95 is just hype and/or marketing dollars, not actual game quality.

[BitbyDeath]

Metacritic is about as reliable as VGChartz, just don't bother using it.

[P_Bomb]

@IHateYouFanboys
That 360 rebuttal article from that IGN writer against IGN's Moriarty was unfortunately fundamentally wrong.

Had NOTHING to do with metacritic either so I don't know where you got metacritic from. He was top 50-ing vgchartz.

Anyways, why was it fundamentally fud? For 1...it used vgchartz estimates over actual dev/pub released numbers. He dismissed David Cage's Heavy Rain numbers yet trusted an anon' vgchartz guesstimator's and left it off the list. That's questionable.

...and 2...list had something like 5-6 multiplats on the 360 side moonlighting as exclusives. Gears1 is on PC, Fable3 is on PC, MassEffect is on PC, both L4Ds are on PC. The guy called games 360 exclusives that you don't need to buy a 360 to play. I think what MS is looking for with this new release is more IPs that are actually, literally exclusive to the 360 that require one to purchase a 360 in order to play. Like Alan Wake and Crackdown.

The rest of your "lotta games are mostly mediocre/rubbish" angle is just your own subjective tastes which can easily differ from the next guy's. Hardly admissable in critic-court as fact.

The tit-for-tat game also favors 'Why o Why's list as well. It continues through to next year. What are the equivalents to Starhawk, Twisted Metal, Sly4, Last Guardian, Yakuza Dead Souls and Dust514? MS is asking for some now, and they're smart imo to be finally getting out there and looking for 'em.

[fullmetal297]

All I ask is no more shooters.

[midget2k101]

@ApplEaglElephant, ''Also, Gears 3 isnt owned by MS. EPIC owns them. MS just got exclusivity deal for first 3 Gears game.''

''Epic can now do w/e they want including making it multiplat.''

epic games own the gears ip, but microsoft published the first 3, so they wont come out on anyother platform, maybe future gears games will, that is also y mass effect 1 hasnt come to the ps3 cause microsoft published it, they never published mass effect 2, if u didnt mean making the first 3 gears games multiplat and meant future gears games, then i apolagise, that is wat i thought u meant.

[nasstyngg3r242]

i didnt know mgs made gears i thought epic made it and owns the i.p

[BrianC6234]

Screw you Microsoft. We don't care. You get your own developers for that. Why did you close up or dump most of your in-house developers? I hope no third party developers let these idiots buy up exclusives. Microsoft has already done too much to hurt this generation.

[Hyperbomb69]

Yeah thats one of the reasons why PS3 is superior.

Heavy Rain
Uncharted
Demons Souls
LBP
Infamous
(off the top of my head)

These were new exclusives introduced this generation and I dont remember if they were AAA stuff but nevertheless they were really good.

[urwifeminder]

Im happy with what ms is making exclusives are not important to me ,i look at other consoles exclusives and think there is not one game id like to play all seem overhyped broken releases that need constant patching.Keep up the good work ms one satisfied gamer.

[modesign]

one and only

[modesign]

so is microsoft going to create these new "ip's" or just buy
"new" multiplat titles.

[gotgame1985]

If you really take the time to look at I this is really a very smart move by Microsoft, they came out at the begening of this gen saying that they wont the 360 to last 10 years.
So they just added updates and bought exclusive rights to timed limted dlc or first console launch games. and they came out with a couple of new ips this gen but just kind of sat back and watch sony, Mean while sony just came with one new ip after another, But now they are starting to move on to the new playstation. So what is microsft doing? coming out with brand new ips for the current xbox I searously dout that there will be any more new ps3 ips and people will go into stores and see all these new ips on 360 and if the are good new ips the 360 will look a whole lot more interesting then the ps3. micro soft waited to the last second to start launching new ips and i think they are finally going to bring back killer instint because they also said rare was working on a new game.

[PixL]

Is it "wants" like when a child wants a candy or is it just the typical babbling when they lie to us? I was lied to about the quality of MS exclusives by the press and scores. I was lied to about the future of MS exclusives by the company itself. I lost my trust in their brand and stopped buying their products and I had bought quite a lot of them (phones, software, the system and games). I hope somebody buys them off soon and they leave the console market. It'd be much better place without them.

[krazykombatant]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! Someone buy off MS off the market. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA . On a more serious note, it depends which exlusives you wanted and what your expectations were for those games. If you were thinking that gears was going to be a FPS yes your expectations were going to be severely destroyed. They're computers are fine, unless your a applelover and you have the cash to pay x3 or more for something that any PC can do. Phonewise well, idk why people would want to get a windows phone. Just go with android the whole way. I don't think they are lying to us. MS knows by know that rewarding your loyal fanbase and appealing to the casuals is the best way to turn a profit in this world. If MS were to be off the market, then SONY would be a complete slaker on the Multiplayer department. Ninty was a non player when it came to MP this generation. MS raised the bar on multiplayer and what to expect from it. There is nothing better than healthy competition.

[MasterCornholio]

More exclusive AAA Kinect games are what all 360 gamers want.

Lol im just kidding but it's good to see that Microsoft wants more exclusives for the box.

XperiaRay