Today, we have some exciting news to share about the next chapter for Kinect. Our Windows SDK 2.0 is now available for the Kinect v2 sensors, and developers can commercially deploy Kinect apps in the Windows Store for the first time.
TSA asks what is the future for Xbox.
They clearly never did, hence why they spent so many BILLIONS on other publishers as a last resort.
They have a plan. It's to move everything toward streaming and mobile. This is just the next step.
With half of the money they spent, they could have been on the very top and the gaming industry would be way bigger than it is.. encourage developers, indies, make them grow trust them and they will deliver.
What are you talking about Cacabunga? The Xbox faithful insisted that Microsoft has infinite money, and after Activision they should buy Square Enix and Capcom before Sony does. There was no chance ever that Microsoft would do this. They would use their infinite millions and Bitcoins to invest in 50 new IP and beat everyone.
Sure, a plan to be a more hated game company than EA. Ubisoft were recently giving them a run for their money but I think Xbox have really knocked it out the park with their latest stunt.
Absolutely not, their whole plan is at odd with what MS wants
Phil wants GP to become big
MS wants to sell games and make billions
GP can’t be sustained with AAA games which take 3-5 years and 7 figure budgets. Only go put those games on GP day one. Why do you think games are coming out on other platforms?
People want a change and want Phil gone without realizing if someone new comes along they may want to change everything again so we just keep going in circles. Phil has to realize that and give clear message on the direction of Xbox
He's been very quiet recently. I was really looking forward seeing how he would spin all this as a good thing.
He never appears on anything bad, the moment something positive appears you can bet he will be there loud and clear like nothing happened.
During the acquisition saga, he wasn't in any articles that looked negative for the completion of the buyout; like when the CMA blocked in initially. But he was front and center of the charge when the tides turned, acting like nothing was ever wrong.
Him and his VP, Zeref, will likely only be able to go "b-b-but Sony" anyway.
Yes, as reiterated many times, their plan is to increase their profits through ownership revenue of big IP that release on other platforms, consolidate their portfolio by cutting any superfluous or unwanted excess (in their minds) and double down on the Game Pass trash. To you and me, Hi Fi Rush matters, to them it's a blip on the larger Bethesda and Activision acquisition. To you and me, investing in new IP matters, to them it's unwanted risk. To you and me, investing in studios matters, to them it's meaningless when you own the publisher. To you and me, Game Pass isn't sustainable and there is zero evidence to suggest it's a success or that it will lead to better games. To Microsoft it's a passive revenue stream and shields them from having to make games because they can hide behind "value".
The sooner you accept that Microsoft and their practices are a cancer to gaming and we all called this years ago, the better you will all look as journalists who maybe know more than high schoolers...and Obscure Observer.
You had me up until the end and then you killed your own argument. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, not even Phil Spencer, knows more about any of this than Obscure Observer 🤣.
I eagerly await his next post praising Phil for not being afraid to make those tough decisions.
Thank you Phil! Thank you Team Xbox! Let's go!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!
This, become the new EA/Ubisoft. Slowly, so that the frog doesn't notice the water has boiled.
The plan is to buy up as many studios as possible, shut then down and keep the IPs so they can then earn a fortune on licensing.
Their plan is to go 3rd party and it should be obvious by now. If MS went 3rd party they would probably be the top 3rd party developer out there. Unfortunately they will simultaneously destroy the connection they had with the few millions of fans they have left. We shall see…
Nope shutting down studios, lack of enticing first party titles, testing the waters putting old Xbox exclusives on other platforms, buying up other studios with out solid key exclusives to entice the customer, being dead last in sales, making two different Xboxes one with horse power and one where games have to be nerfed down. Locking 343 and the Coalition to making only Gears of War and Halo. Who knows what Rare is working on. Microsoft has no plans on what to do or how they are going to recoup all that money they spent acquiring Activision and Zenimax. It will be interesting to see how or if Microsoft can turn this downward trend around.
There are two reasons why all those Bethesda studios closed, and neither of them have anything to do with Bethesda (directly)...
Game Pass and Activision.
The guy confirming what we've all (well, most of us) been saying since the latest purchase.
Remember the relatively common counter that went something like "I'm sure you arm-chair CEOs know better how to run a company than the biggest company in the world"?
I mean - there's a lot to running a company for sure, but on this topic it's hard to understand how Phil and team didn't see this coming.
Phil and team knew it was coming and planned for it. It's not even a conspiracy, it's simply the business of cutting costs and superfluous studios after a major acquisition. They don't give a damn about Tango Gameworks or other small creative studios that won't recoup their losses. They don't care about investing in this industry. They have no interest in risky and expensive new IP. They are only interested in profiting off ownership of Bethesda IP, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
I guarantee you that not one single game under their banner will improve or become bigger and better.
Welcome to the Xbox family, what a pathetic joke.
Anyone who continues to support this, enjoy your future, because this is it. Ninja Theory is next, and Perfect Dark after that.
Especially not with the evidence of tons of existing movie streaming subs out there and how they fail to make a profit with over 100m users each quarter.
Apparently they're debating if they wanna put the new Cod on Gamepass or not.
Either grow GP with Cod or don't put it on GP and grow the revenue the traditional way while GP will suffer.
The mess that MS puts themselves in.
LOL the cheerleaders for the ABK acquisition were all cheering for CoD to be on GP day 1 and they were adamant that Jim Ryan was scared because of THAT and was fighting for the survival of the PS brand if CoD is taken away or given day 1 on GP. hahaha...now suddenly MS is unsure if they wanna put CoD on GP day 1??
isn't this false marketing? they said ALL (not some) 1st party xbox games will be released on GP day 1 and CoD is now 1st party starting last year! it's right there still on their website.
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/...
lawsuit time??
@badz149
People were being blind fans. Things is if you look at things objectively and logically since inception, gamepass from a business perspective was never going to be good idea unless you had hundreds of millions subscribed, which Microsoft was never going to get in a timely manner.
People kept pointing out the cons and people kept having their hands over their ears. I wonder how guys like Orchard and Septic who were rooting for the acquisition to go through like people do when their team makes it to the Superbowl are receiving this news lol
Just think its a bit insane to close their ?only? Good japanese studio...so much for caring for that market.
Honestly i think Bethesda needs to buy themselves out of zenimax/MSs hands and do their own thing, i honestly think that would fix a lot of issues and save them from a potential closure.
There's a reason they sold in the first place. And Bethesda is not closing anytime soon lol. As much as I hate the studio closures. They were all small studios 2 of them were mobile studios.
I think these are growing pains and Xbox will get back on track. But they're not getting any more passes.
I’d like to see your reaction to being growing pained out of your job after the launch of a successful product.
Excuses, Excuses, excuses.
If growing pains have been happening for the best part of a decade, they're not growth.
Zeref nii San
I'm sorry but xbox has been rightfully bashed due to constant incompetence
Yet you literally just gave them a pass, being "small studios" or "mobile studios" is irrelevant. There's no excsue for closing Tango, none. They praise the game, they PR talk about it's the kind of game the company needs and yet they shutter the developer, that's foul on every level.
Ah Zeref head in the sand like a idiot. Gamepass is a absolute failure like we all told you. Nothing at this point will turn this around. It's not growing pains, the growth is done. Even streaming with 100 million subscribers can't turn a profit and you think Xbox with Gamepass will turn it around? Lol.
It's not a coincidence that Xbox stopped announcing Xbox Gamepass numbers just like they stopped announcing Xbox One hardware numbers and no Series S/X numbers which are behind the Xbox One even.
Remember when we said Xbox customers don't buy games?! Lol. Well this confirmed literally everything we told Xbox fans that said Gamepass was very profitable? Sorry revenues and lack of profit suggest otherwise
Can't wait to see your reaction when their 2nd round of closures happens. Perfect Dark studio and Ninja Theory will next.
No, this isn't growing pains. Xbox has been on the scene for over 20 years.
This is Microsoft not being content with competing, they want to own and control the industry. Buy out as many major devs/publishers as possible so that they own all the IPs. It's only the IPs they care about. Not the Studio's, not the people. They're an insidious, cancerous company and are the worst thing to ever happen to the gaming industry.
Bethesda greenlit Redfall, launched Fallout 76 in the condition it was in (and the fiasco with the bonus bag), and spent all that time on Starfield finishing it as it was with that same engine. Wolfenstein Youngblood exists because of them too, not Microsoft.
Are you *sure* leaving them alone would actually result in a better outcome, not just a different one?
A lot of this excessive monetization, and GAAS crap started when Zenimax decided to start looking for a buyer. Not a coincidence that there was a sudden shift in prioritizing profits above quality or even coherence at the same time. They wanted big numbers to attract buyers, now that they've been bought, MS wants exactly what they were baited with.
However even under Zenimax they made enough to self publish sometimes, so i would imagine it's not too far fetched that they could pay their way into independence if they REALLY wanted to.
Also even people at Bethesda and Arkane were hoping MS would cancel the game as again, they were forced to make something they didn't want to make.
Havent seen any decisions since the buyout that lead me to believe MS knows what to do with them either . Easiest one would have to be the fallout 4 upgrade...with minimal effort it could have been a big win for leadership...but nope we got a standard Bethesda release for a patch.
Ah, we can see how the Microsoft media machine works.
Every article I read now is some kind of attempt to shift the blame off Microsoft and paint them as the victims or convince people that Microsoft mistakes were just some kind unforeseeable unfortunate twist of fate.
The shills are out in full force today.
This is not at all what this article is saying. It's saying that honest and useful studios are getting closed because of big money deals elsewhere and the faults with game pass as a model.
I understand what the article is about.
It's a deflection, it's a putting the cart before the horse article.
Let me tell you how this problem wouldn't have existed in the first place.
Microsoft not creating a service funded by subsidization and having the foresight to see that it would disrupt consumer spending habit to begin with. Then not buying Bethesda and undertaking costs for a service that was already failing to pay for itself because their own expectations of Game Pass having "billions" of subscribers was unobtainable from the very start.
And if you don't think that was the case go back to the article on the day Game Pass launched and read the comments from people from day one who foresaw that this would be an unsustainable model and would cause people to stop spending in the same way.
***Microsoft not creating a service funded by subsidization and having the foresight to see that it would disrupt consumer spending habit to begin with.***
This article literally supports this opinion. He's not praising Game Pass or the ABK purchase.
This is an explanation of why it failed, there is zero blame put onto Microsoft itself.
Yes, it talks about what went wrong, but it doesn't say Microsoft shouldn't have done it. It doesn't say Phil should have foreseen this outcome and stopped before it got to this point.
"convince people that Microsoft mistakes were just some kind unforeseeable unfortunate twist of fate"
***but you're seeing the impact; all those smaller studios making really interesting games are going to fall away, simply because as good as games like Hi-Fi Rush are, they're never going to make enough money to make up that $70B hole that Xbox now has to dig itself out of.***
If you see that as support or you explicitly just want people to end their argument with "and, in conclusion, Microsoft bad" then that's on you. This article does not support Microsoft's choices and highlights the faults. Nothing it says is good about these choices, even saying that putting CoD on Game Pass would be money losing for them because they've set themselves up for failure (and not putting it on there will drop subscriber numbers like crazy, meaning their Game Pass plans were shit to begin with).
No matter how you look at it, they're saying Microsoft made decisions that hurt the bottom line, force closures, and leave Game Pass in a situation where they lose no matter what they do. It's all negative.
Christopher, if Microsoft hadn't made Game Pass and bought a bunch of publishers would this article even need to exist?
***Christopher, if Microsoft hadn't made Game Pass and bought a bunch of publishers would this article even need to exist? ***
How is this an argument to anything being discussed? This is just as valuable of an argument as "if fish had stayed in deeper waters, they wouldn't have evolved to tetrapods, adapted to shallow water and then to land, and we wouldn't even exist and have to worry about game pass at all."
You're bringing nothing to this argument and then complaining that other people are highlighting the issues with Game Pass and spending tens of billions on studios because what we should be discussing is what it would be like if Microsoft hadn't done any of that.
Well, they did do it. Now pull up your big boy pants and join in on the discussion of what that has meant for the industry since then and, especially right now, how that is affecting the industry and game studios under Microsoft. None of us are able to go back in time and change what was done.
Christopher, this isn't me not understanding what the article is about, it's you not understanding what I am saying.
If you want me to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions you're not going to get that or just agree with people who are doing that, it's not going to happen, nor are you going to convert me into thinking xbox "needs to exist".
Ya know what, maybe "Microsoft bad".... maybe their decisions ARE having a negative effect on the industry, and instead of deflecting from their actual actions and making excuses for them we stand up and say "no" "Microsoft is hurting the industry"
And maybe, just maybe, it was so obvious that this was going to be the outcome that even nobodies in comment sections on websites were able to easily predict this outcome, yet Microsoft did it anyway then kept doing and even when it became undeniable that it was having a negative impact on their business and and the industry itself, then they knowingly made even bigger purchases and caused more problems.
And the one thing you're right about is that I can't go back in time, but I CAN speak up and try to keep it from happening again...
Maybe if the people who were speaking up 7 years ago were listened too we wouldn't be having this discussion and Tango and Arkane would still be in business along with all the other people who have lost their jobs due to Microsoft's actions.
Do you like analogies?
What you're saying is like an alcoholic crashing their car then trying to explain it by saying it was caused by everything except the fact that they were dunk because they are an alcoholic and don't want to stop drinking.
Why the excuses here? Microsoft did one thing no other company can do which is subsidize Xbox with these insane purchases in hopes of suffocating the industry out in hopes to be the last one standing so they can charge whatever they want.
How are you excusing this crap even and putting your head in the sand here? It's pretty clear who is at fault here for the situation they built and put themselves in. It's them trying to push everyone around with cash that no one else can compare.
They knowingly did all that and now are trying to pretend the market is to blame? Lol. That is absolutely rich irony. That you can't see the forest for the trees here too.
The article is essentially focusing the blame on MS. GamePass was a hail mary play to change the gaming paradigm and carve out a special niche for themselves, emulating the Netflix model, that might have led to MS becoming the leader in the long-term. Unfortunately, the subscriber growth isn't really there, and the model isn't really built to weather that lack of revenue. MS is now in a restructure mindset to figure out how they balance out their model in a way that can still make them money.
've always believed that GamePass was a high risk shot that had a very low chance of long-term success. But the problem with it, whether it succeeded or not, is that it accelerated the proverbial "race to zero" consumer expectation that ran its course in the mobile gaming industry in the late 2000s. When consumers start thinking that games should be "cheap" (as in through a $10/month all-you-can-eat subscription model), it turns the narrative against games being priced at realistic levels. So with the GamePass failure, they've not only sabotaged their market share, but they've impacted the entire industry and devalued the cost of game development to the average consumer. So now it's harder to develop mega-big budget games and to earn the revenue needed to pay for them.
***If you want me to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions you're not going to get that or just agree with people who are doing that, it's not going to happen, nor are you going to convert me into thinking xbox "needs to exist". ***
No one is asking you to make excuses for Microsoft's bad decisions nor is anyone asking you to convert to anything.
***Ya know what, maybe "Microsoft bad".... maybe their decisions ARE having a negative effect on the industry, and instead of deflecting from their actual actions and making excuses for them we stand up and say "no" "Microsoft is hurting the industry" ***
Literally no one here is doing this. They're literally discussing how Microsoft's decisions have hurt the industry. Except you. You're rambling about why people aren't complaining about Microsoft when people are in fact complaining about Microsoft.
*** And the one thing you're right about is that I can't go back in time, but I CAN speak up and try to keep it from happening again... ***
Then perhaps actually add something to the conversation other than calling people shills when people are complaining about the decisions and repercussions of Microsoft's actions.
Christopher, you're fighting a block wall here - Ein will continue twisting and contorting any remark to fit his self-created narrative.
"Then perhaps actually add something to the conversation other than calling people shills when people are complaining about the decisions and repercussions of Microsoft's actions."
Cristopher, in no way is the author of this article complaining, they are explaining what happened it's literally the title. They never once say that Microsoft shouldn't have bought Zenimax or Activision or that Game Pass was a bad idea to begin with. They think the problem with Game Pass is that it didn't grow fast enough, not that it was a bad idea from the get go.
BTW this is his job title.
"Public Relations and Communications Leader"
What do you think a Public Relations and Communications Leader does to make money?
Edit: I have read a dozen of these articles that just started coming out in the last 24 hours that are trying to shift the conversation away from blaming Microsoft, the shift here and in several other articles is trying to say it just didn't gain subscribers fast enough, not that it was a bad idea to begin with that was doomed to fail or placing the blame on anyone.
It was all just an unforeseeable outcome, no one should be held responsible it was just a billion dollar oopsie that's costing thousands of people their jobs and has caused a downturn in the entire industries sustainability.
Oopsie!
It's greed. MS has the IP's it wants now it's dumping the studios that it's raided, MS will still make money from Tango's games unlike the people that made them. If anyone follows MS outside of gaming you'll see this is what they do, buy companies take what they want consolidate some of the workforce and shut them down. I don't know why people are acting so surprised when this is Microsoft being Microsoft.
MS is a three trillion dollar company, if it enters a market it has no need to compete, they take what they want and with the financial influence it can bypass laws that are meant to protect the consumer and the workforce. Just look at how they are cornering the AI market right now with buyups and investments.
Yep. Many of us said gamepass is not sustainable.
Something has to give. Quality dropping, studios and employees getting dropped, games with more MTs , battle passes and a price hike(s) are all needed to make Gamepass even have a chance to be sustainable.
I'm sorry but this is a simplistic answer to a complex problem.
for 1 if the problem was purely Gamepass then we wouldn't see massive cuts across the industry.
Last I checked Game Pass is not on PlayStation and they have the biggest player base.
Now the author mentioned that HI-Fi Rush is a flash in the pants on Gamepass because it's played for a month then it drops making it impossible to recoup investment versus 1st day sales.
And I agree with the established IP making no sense in releasing day 1but HIFi Rush isn't an established IP
meaning that it would have failed no matter what
Sony themselves acknowledged this in an investor call when they mentioned that raising the price of AAA games didn't bring new money for the PlayStation brand but made the consumer more selective with their money favoring established IP.
Is Rise of the Ronin selling well?
How did Lord of the Fallen perform?
And that is the sad real truth for why Game Pass exist
because nobody actually buys unknown or less popular games
Sure everybody claims that if the game is good it will succeed but suddenly excuses are always mentioned when the game failed.
Just remember Gamepass wasn't there to explain
Dishonored and Dishonored 2 lack of sales
Evil Within and Evil Within 2
Prey, etc.
Many people literally showed with 100 million subscribers on streaming failing to turn a profit and how Xbox would also need 100+ million to even be profitable and you guys kept pushing back. They are no where near 100 million even. It's a giant loss of money. Add in COD and the losses will be insane
...and overspending on aquisition only to find out they cannot aford to keep what they aquired. It's like an idiot winning the lotto and blowing it all on hookers and blow in loosing it in one night (or like Bobby Kotick rolling his bonus in Macau).
i think we all knew this qould happen really, after the Activision buyout.
but this is just blame shifting in the end. seen a few of them already
I’m not buying HB2, but I will resub for a month to beat it. Such is the nature of GamePass, I guess.
I did exactly this, with A Plague Tale: Requiem which is one of my favourite games of last year and despite having bought the first game. That is Game Pass for you. Now I have A Plague Tale: Requiem sitting on my Steam wishlist so that I can buy it on discount and support the developers in some small way.
Ninja Theory is definitely going down after Hellblade 2. They historically have never made games that ship millions and are thus not in MS' future plans.
Short story - MS sucks, MS is woke. Bought many game developers, ruined them, drove off the talent, lost much money, closed them, made excuses.
My perspective over the years is that gaming has become so mainstream that companies looking for profit or new heads trying to make a name for themselves are buying out these gaming companies for profit. They do not care about the vision of the creator anymore. Everything is risky. They want to buy ideas and talent that they never had. Games are barely even on disc's anymore. So many now have to be online. These companies just want to keep selling you stuff as many times and for as long as they can. They want you to act on that dopamine drip. Thank goodness for studios like Larian and From Software. Not even the Big N has stooped this low yet.
Back when the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft pushed the big budget game as a differentiator. Following all the recent layoffs, it’s clear this strategy has run its course.
The Microsoft shill take on the Microsoft causing the death of big budget gaming...
The whole driving force for growth in gaming both technologically, creatively and financially was all nonsense, and it was definitely not because Microsoft ran the industry into the ground with obviously bad decisions and creating an unprofitable business model that massively disrupted consumer spending habits. /s
First, F**** Forbes and their shill take, I hope the money cleared by now.
Second, Which big budget games I might ask? Microsoft has been in a rut for like a decade now, with no big publisher and developers puechases they would have not released anything in the last 5 years but the new Halo and Forza.
Fortunately for us, since we know this message is basically coming from Microsoft, we can read into their motives. Why are they trying to turn people against big budget games and who would it help.... hmmm.
GP is like any content service it needs new content. AAA games take 100 plus million (low end estimates since most AAA games take double that) and it 4-5 years to develop. That’s why there were 2 god of war games instead of 3 because Cory felt like it would take too long
I am not defending MS. That’s just the reality when you put all your eggs in one basket (gamepass) and now they need content. Sadly that’s what we all said would happen and is happening. GP will be a service for AA games with 1-2 AAA games on yearly basis. And I am all for AA games because to me that’s where developers can take chances on smaller budgets but MS has mismanaged this whole situation from the beginning. Their messaging needs to be clear and it’s not
They own so many studios and IP’s they just need to get everyone on schedule so that there are games releasing every few months on GP. But I don’t even think Phil knows what he wants. It seems his goals change constantly
Game pass is not a sustainable and take two ceo was right when he said that it doesn’t make any business sense to release huge AAA games day one on GP. Just like call of duty shouldn’t be on GP because why give up on 15-20 million sales
"And I am all for AA games because to me that’s where developers can take chances on smaller budgets"
How'd that work out for Tango?
Do you think less AAA games will increase game pass revenue or decrease it when it has less value? What if they also have to increase the costs?
Right on.
Hahaha MS has ended “focus” on games? Lol when? 3 generations ago maybe?
Man I don’t know what the writer is smoking, anyone with a braincell can see what will happen is the exact opposite, they’re gonna double down on big name IPs and turn them into GaaS and milk them to the extreme with multiple studios focusing on specific IPs instead of creating their own games.
It was so clear with the way they keep 343 despite multiple failures and shutting down Tango even after winning awards, MS is a service provider and not a product creator, they will buy the product from others and turn it into a service.
LOL, this article is a big pile of dog crap...
Spencer has been constantly telling ppl that NO they would not go the route of having games like TLOU, Uncharted, etc because Playstation exists and prefers to focus on a diverse portfolio.
How many years have we seen Xbox as no game and we don't want small games like ORI, Pentiment, Grounded, etc.?
That's the real tragedy and why lots of gamers are mad at MS right now
because they have been championing smaller titles and yet fired the ppl delivering exactly what they were proning about.
So no the only nonsense is that MS seems now to be going BACK to AAA popular titles..sorry, I meant refocusing effort on core established IP where broken GAAS might be rewarded versus praised and rewarded work.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/...
You read an article cheerleading the end of big budget games and all the other articles about problems and this is what you have to say? That's what you think "the real tragedy" is?
I thought that xbox fans might finally "get it", but no, it seems they don't even understand what is happening and what is at stake.
Please tell me what's happening and what is at stake
Since it's not big companies closing small studios, killing innovation while refocusing assets on big ongoing projects and core IP?
Let's See MS Close Tango Studio mentions that they are too thin on key project
Sony Close London Studio and make massive cuts in Firespite will reallocate resources to core project
EA will focus on Core project
Square will focus on big established IP
.....
.....
Big budget games are great and MS can't manage them properly. Therefore, they have to quit trying because they are incapable of making them, and they want to go all live service, streaming, and mobile, which is why they are downsizing.
They are going to do literally the opposite. Focus on the big hitters only like elder scrolls / fallout / cod
What. No where in the last few months especially the last few days have I gotten Ms is about to kill it with the Xbox. Maybe kill the Xbox but not in a good way.
The level of spin in this article is so intense it should have a disclaimer warning it may cause dizziness.
I thought the whole point behind the recent layoffs were to focus more on the bigger IPs.
The denial is strong with this crowd. The implosion is happening. This big budget “race to the top” that started in the 2000s is reaching its peak, and may fall off a cliff. With MS throwing in the proverbial towel, that leaves Sony with the most to lose. There’s no more growth in the industry to facilitate ever-growing game budgets, and with consumers not willing to pay more than $60 for a new game, publishers have only one choice to survive…. Consolidate, downsize, and downscale.
Nintendo had it right all along as their focus on lower spec hardware justified an avoidance of the hyper-realistic blockbuster game. Their audience has been conditioned to accept, and ENJOY, single-A and AA first-party game titles with low graphical expectations.
It will be interesting how Sony proceeds going forward, but I suspect that we’re already witnessing the transition to lower budget/live service content, with only the occasional big budget game to keep their customer base placated.
"It will be interesting how Sony proceeds going forward"
https://twitter.com/Zuby_Te... check 1st pinned comment
its all the studios Sony owns, with exactly what they're up to
I'm thinking mid-to-long term. At the beginning of this gen/end of last gen, the focus was still on the blockbuster. That ratio will begin to shift to better economize the library.
And of course as we are seeing, things can change quickly.
yeh I see what you mean, in the mid - to long term, strategies could shift,
however, they did just cancel 6 games and the rest are going ahead as planned, so at least for now, we know exactly what's up, some trailers wouldn't hurt though, sheesh, suppose they used to get slated for releasing a trailer to early as well, so now they dont, can't win!!! hehe
Amazing how MS messes things up and all of a sudden it's "Sony has the most to lose". smdh
Yeah reached it's peak, no one's willing to pay $60, it's been $70 for a while now by the way. Now lets watch what happens when big budget GTA 6 launches, bet all that goes right out the window.
How f*cking small do you want’em?? U just got rid of HiFi Rush, you gonna put Jumping Sandwich turbo on the next E3???????
Big budget games are absolutely required to push forward the state of the art. Everyone loves to play a game that clearly pushes graphics forward, those are some of gaming best moments.
Big budget gaming doesn't work when those big budget games are put on gamepass day one. A day one gamepass inclusion lowers the overall quality of the game and severely limits if not completely removes the need for a full price consumer purchase. MS is looking for a cost trade off, small low budget games that cost much less to make than the money they rake in from gp subscriptions. Big budget gaming has worked fine for decades but now it "nonsense" becasue MS went and blundered it, yeah ok forbes, whatever you say.
Big Budget (AAA) gaming can be great of course when the game is done right. When it's released day one it should be charged at full retail price instead of releasing on subscription services day one.
Big budget nonsense huh? Who paid Forbes for this crap article. If anyone argued the movie industry should stop making blockbusters and instead turn to relying on more profitable subscription series sitcoms and shows I’d bet people would not be happy about that. Corporate shills gonna shill. Big budget games advance the industry, breaks boundaries and pushes hardware, engines, software design and the creative process forward. I thought Microsoft was an unstoppable piggy bank of power?
This article doesn't make any sense as they closed their small budget studios not the big budget ones.
Big budget gaming???? What big budget game have they developed from beginning to end?
Think OP means big budget spending.
I wouldn't mind there being less big budget games as long as that's reflected in the price of the game.
I'm mainly playing games on my PC that are 5--15 years old, with the occasional newer game which is becoming rarer and rarer. I'm having more fun playing the older games that i missed or didn't get around to playing yet then I am the newer ones majority of the time. I think the last new game that I remember really liking was Sniper Elite 5.
damn.
how tone deaf can u be.
a bunch of people lost their jobs and Forbes is like
"omg like finally microsoft is stop doing big budget games"
the fuck.
Forbes says this but the next COD will be a AAA game anyway. Short sighted fools.
Matt Booty said they're "prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds", that sounds like more big budget gaming to me.
Corporations then:
Let's invest massive amounts of money to make even more money!
Corporations now:
Let's make cuts and stop spending to appease our shareholders and investors short term and so the CEO could get a massive bonus... wait, why aren't we making any money?