One Angry Gamer writes "Oh hey, did you know about Shadowrun Returns? You know, the Kickstarted game that made some headway on the gaming media spaces like Kim Kardashian’s butt across multiple airplane seats? Well, following on the success of Dragonfall, the very well-received expansion pack for Shadowrun Returns, it appears as if Harebrained Schemes, the developer behind the game, has more in store and more content planned for the series."
Members of the Harebrained Schemes studio discussed the lessons they took away from The Lamplighters League, a game that Paradox Interactive described as commercially weak and a “big disappointment.”
With Harebrained Schemes now independent once again, there are several reasons that make it Microsoft's next ideal acquisition target.
Ms has plenty. They don't need anymore. They probably have as many studios as Sony and Nintendo combined. How much more does this company need ?
They couldn’t handle the studios they had before acquiring Activision Blizzard which added 9 studios, 17,000 employees, and 30 IPs.
“How much more does this company need ?“
Until they back Sony into a corner where they will loose games knowing their first party games, while good, will not be able to keep up and they finally snuff them out winning the console wars by default.
i have said before, they should of bought remedy, these guys worked closely with MS, and are a top notch developer who make stunning looking and playing games with strong single player stories.. why they have not bought them is beyond me, i bet Sony are looking at them closely.. I love both Sony and MS and Nintendo, but MS needs teams like remedy who make strong single player third person games like Sony teams do....
"How much more does this company need ?"
CDPR, Remedy, Crytek among others which always had a great relationship with Xbox since the beginning.
Harebrained Schemes would be a great addition to Xbox and it´s RPG IPs portfolio.
Countless possibilities for IP mismanagement lol who shall get ruined first I wonder.
CDPR games could really use more walking sim mechanics lol
Crytek was focused primarily on PC they avoided consoles right up until crysis 2, crysis 3 and then they ported crysis 1 very late in the ps360 lifecycle Ubisoft built far cry instincts predator games for Xbox that was their mandate for the IP. They published Ryse as they got paid for it via an timed exclusively deal (the game did that badly they didn't bother porting) none of this equals a great relationship from the start.
Remedy has a great relation with Rockstar if anything and these days is closer to sony.
Cdpr is another studios that pc first.
I don't get what your trying to say if you think these are potential acquisitions for ms it doesn't make sense as they may have done some exclusivity work for Xbox but have done other exclusive deals for other consoles or primarily focused on PC historically
I can tell you right now being and have worked with the RT team HS would not sell out, they already said they don't have any plans or capacity to do another BT game. They want to do other things. Everyone in this thread here is very much on drugs. Nothing about what any of your are saying is what the creators and dev's want.
Cry-Tek is something I wanted MS to buy a long time ago being someone who was a big fan of CE3 (The Game Engine.) They had to get bailed out by the German Government some years back, and not many games use it now days. Amazon did for a bit, I know PGi uses it for MWO, and some others. Since Microsoft for what ever reason can't seem to build there own damn game engine, it would have made sense. But, again I'm not sure they could if they wanted due to what ever the German Gov, and the constraints on buying business there are. That's a complicated mess, from what I understand.
MS needs to first chill out and make sure what they have works out, Once that is the case I'd rather see them buy some smaller places and grow them. $$$ has never been MS's issue, its they are too large to manage and be creative at times. Even with all the new IP's they got, its still going to be COD for 10 more years, the stuff they have in the oven which I hope is good (Looking at you Perfect Dark) I want to kick ass. We as gamers are so far from that yet and MS has a bad habit, not just in the game but software industry of buy buy buy cut cut cut, then it goes to shit. I know all too damn well. I want MS to go back to there old self, you won't be an industry leader by buying everyone out, you got to do it yourself.
Why are you encouraging more acquisitions, obscure?
Why wouldn't you be using your platform to encourage ms to, you know, actually make something, instead of buy something that already exists?
You know much of an immature fanboy attitude that is?
Given they've shown no real ability to manage studios under them, create sustainable new IPs vs buying established popular ones, they could buy every major AAA maker outside of Sony and Nintendo and it still wouldn't be enough. Likely devastate the industry worse than the 80s crash.
If I were you, I would be more worried about the competition and its current and future plans for Playstation Studios and its games.
Just heard Bungie is the newest Playstation first party studio that will be enduring layoffs.
You love to trash talk and to accuse Microsoft of mismanagement of studios, when in reality it´s Playstation the ones mismanaging its studios, which you shamelessly won´t even comment on.
Both Japan Studios ad PixelOpus got shut down. A massive wave of recent layoffs hit Playstation first party studios like Media Molecule, Visual Arts and Naughty Dog.
Now, Jason Schreier claims that Bungie employees are the next getting the axe, which is truly shocking if true.
https://twitter.com/jasonsc...
I mean, really???
After a $3.7 billion deal and after just one freaking year as part of Playstation Studios, people at Bungie already are losing their jobs, upcoming Destiny 2´s expansion getting delayed for June´s 2024 and Marathon for 2025.
So yeah, I rather have Matt Booty over Hermen Hulst any day of the year!
@Obscure_Observer:
I've said earlier I skipped PS4. Am happy Ryan's gone. Hope the brand can recover, but doubt it. Really just got a PS5 for its BR.
Still, they're ahead of MS, who supposedly had more studios than Sony and Nintendo before buying Activision, yet had to rely on Bethesda, other former 3rd party devs with in production titles, to have their current releases. If true the majority of said will become rotating contract hires, Things wont get better for Xbox and it'll be MS's fault.
"I've said earlier I skipped PS4. Am happy Ryan's gone. Hope the brand can recover, but doubt it. Really just got a PS5 for its BR."
Yeah... sure thing, man
"Still, they're ahead of MS, who supposedly had more studios than Sony and Nintendo before buying Activision, yet had to rely on Bethesda, other former 3rd party devs with in production titles, to have their current releases."
That´s nonsense!
Until 2018 when Phil finally started to acquire and create new first party studios, Xbox only had FIVE first party studios (RARE, 343i, Turn 10, The Coalition and Mojang) against Playstation and its THIRTEEN first party studios.
By that time Sony had almost triple first party studios working exclusively with Playstation, not to mention the third party ones like Kojima Productions and Insomniac.
Every gamer knows that most AAA development circles took 5 to 7 years to be completed. So, if you were expecting new AAA games from recently acquired Xbox first party studios to be out by now, you´re nothing but a clueless and delusional person.
You´re not totally wrong about Bethesda games, though. Both Redfall and HIFI-Rush were in active development for the PS5 which was confirmed by its directors.
But that was not the case for Starfield at all since Todd Howard himself confirmed that by the time Microsoft acquired Zenimax, there wasn´t a port in active development for both Xbox and PS5, only PC. So a PS5 version of Starfield never existed!
Now, all of the 2024 line up of games for Xbox is ALL in-house first party games so you won´t have a excuse.
Hellblade II
Fable
Awoed
Flight Simulator 2024
Towerborne
We´ll see how well those games will perform under Matt Booty vs whatever Helmen Hulst has in store for your PS5 in terms of first party games, because so far I haven´t seen nothing from Sony as far first party games are concerned for 2024.
It'll never be enough. They won't be satisfied until they've bought up everything they can.
If you can't beat them, buy them, seems to be Microsoft's motto.
Geez man wtf!?! This article is the nodding dog at MS's crotch, it's worse than half of the fanboys on this site!
I guess you've gotta earn those review copies somehow now MS is choosing who is and isn't allowed to review games... and with MS buying the multiplatform market you'll get more grovelling fluff pieces like this.
Please, no more acquisitions. This coming from an Xbox fan. Let MS prove that they can properly manage the studios they have.
Today Paradox Interactive announced that it's parting ways with its subsidiary studio Harebrained Schemes effective January 1, 2024.
I mean it wasn't that intelligent to begin with, release it exclusive to the system that doesn't buy games. Plus it was on gamepass if I'm not mistaken. It's been a minute since I had mine on cause I just wrapped up chrono cross on ps5 but remember looking forward to checking this out on the Xbox. Try it on xbox if I liked it I would've bought on ps
dude go somewhere with that hating on xbox crap. you just admit yourself you wasnt buy the game on xbox , you played it on gamepass and buy it on ps5. you sounds dumb . you silent on forspoken and FF16 didnt sale good. and many other games. keep eating that foot in your mouth
Ff16 sold fairly well.
I prefer to buy on the console who isn't openly trying to kill physical media sorry for your feelings. Ms has been trying to kill physical for some time. Nintendo and sony are the ones still working with smaller publishers. So yes I will buy a game preferably on ps when possible. You act like I just admitted to murder lol. Relax
@shinoff2183
lies. the ceo said himself FF16 didnt sale good. stop the cap. and you can buy them games on xbox. so you full of crap. and what you mean Nintendo and sony are the ones still working with publishers.???? what the hell are you talking about dude xbox works with small publishers. you trying to move the goalpost to fix your narrative. so gonna ignored sony ps5 all digital system huh . rumor next nintendo system will be a digital also with two version.
Really xbox works with smaller publishers. I've heard numerous times xboxs minimum print is to high which is why you don't see smaller publishers like limited run games, special reserve etc work with xbox physical releases. I've read as high as 50k meanwhile Sony and Nintendo have had prints of 1k. Some wonder why smaller publisher haven't worked with ms on smaller releases. That's exactly why.
I assume you just don't know wtf your talking about. And again as someone who prefers physical video games why would or why should I give my hard earned money to a company who has since the announcement of xbox one been out to get rid of physical games. Gtfoh
Far as final fantasy 16 it's been stated It sold fine, would of sold more on pc sure, but it wouldnt of sold well on xbox, we know this, thank you ms. Ms admitted to games bot selling well on that platform already. Here's a newsflash to ya though psssss I didn't really like ff16 much anyway. So that's cute of you.
To clarify maybe a little I'm talking about smaller publishers that produce physical games. Not just any publisher
