Brian Fargo: “I spent 50% of my time raising money”

“I only know the Microsoft under Phil Spencer and Matt Booty and they are passionate gamers who care deeply about supporting talent. More important than words and promises will be the games that come from us in the future, that will be the proof.”

[gangsta_red]

Interesting. Too funny the comments I read about "why does Microsoft buy only established developers??" Here are established developers that have been constantly struggling just to make one game, now they have a chance to not worry about this and keep their doors open and they're employees working.

But for some reason a few would spin this as a negative and would rather see only new studios open while these close.

Makes no sense to me.

[Gazondaily]

Mate these haters have to figure out some next level outer space shit to come up with something on why buying studios is a bad thing.

This is a great article that highlights how Microsoft will actually really help these devs produce great content. No one is saying they are guaranteed to produce hits. It's just that they now have the means to do so. That support will be invaluable to them.

[gangsta_red]

Agreed, even reading the behind the scenes on Ninja Theory only after they were called sell outs was eye opening. They also struggled with finances and had to do grunt mercenary work just to make that Sacrifice game.

About Game Pass,
"They can create the games they want without the pressure to deliver big numbers. They can also reach an audience of people who perhaps would not have played their games previously. Similar to how Netflix encourages people to try different shows as they await the next series of Stranger Things."

This is seriously how I see Game Pass as a benefit.

"Game Pass immediately provides us that audience and gives us more energy to focus on creativity rather than worrying about things like monetisation."

You don't say?? I'm also hoping for this. With Mutant Year Zero and Phoenix Point on the way to GP I'm also hoping to see that wide variety offered on GP as well as anything triple A from other studios.

[ziggurcat]

"Mate these haters have to figure out some next level outer space shit to come up with something on why buying studios is a bad thing."

Nothing wrong with buying studios, but there has to be a balance between that, and creating in-house studios (or even just building second teams within their existing studios). I think it's lazy to just buy buy buy to fill their gaps, and it, in some way, shows that they don't have the confidence in their legacy studios to take the risks necessary to make IPs they don't normally make (i.e. 343 making something other than Halo, The Coalition making something other than Gears, and Turn10 making something other than Forza MS, and Mojang making something other than Minecraft).

The other "problem" (I'm using quotation marks because it's pretty subjective, and it really only affects single-console owners) this creates is it takes away future games that would have otherwise been released on the competition's systems unless MS takes a complete left turn, and decides they're going to get out of the console hardware business, and publish games on all systems later on down the line (which I doubt will ever happen).

[gangsta_red]

@ziggurcat
"...there has to be a balance between that, and creating in-house studios"

Why? That makes absolutely zero sense. Exactly what other company has the need to do this or has done this? What type of balance is there and what exactly would happen to MS, the games these devs are making or for gamers if this was some fictional unbalance?

"I think it's lazy to just buy buy buy to fill their gaps,"

So it's lazy to save these studios from closing? You would rather see new studios built from the ground up and then those studios not being able to produce content for another 4 or 5 years from it's creation all the while reading comments of Xbox has no games? Again, your concerns are extremely nonsensical, skewed and illogical. These are companies that were fighting with finances to make just one mid tier game, they basically had one foot out the door if anything went wrong. But your thinking is that MS buying these studios to give them the finance and creative freedom they want is lazy...?? It's lazy to purchase studios that can hit the ground running and provide content for Xbox gamers? If that's lazy then I say MS should never exercise.

"..in some way, shows that they don't have the confidence in their legacy studios to take the risks necessary to make IPs they don't normally make"

What's funny is 343i and The Coalition are two studios MS created. Which pretty much contradicts your first concern. They gave them two of the most popular IPs from another dev and had enough confidence in them to keep those IPs as popular as they are now. Also giving them the chance to add and take them in different directions story wise for good or worse.

Rare has made nothing but new IPs and every time they do we see comments wishing they would make Conker or Perfect Dark. Turn 10 are rumored to making a new open world IP, and yet...no confidence.

But your understanding is because some of these studios aren't making new IP's then MS doesn't have confidence in them...???

"...this creates is it takes away future games that would have otherwise been released"

This is another low tier, baseless concern that seems to be only applied to MS especially when half of the studios MS picked up where making games for Xbox exclusively anyways.

The rest were also on PC... and by the way these games will also be available on PC, unless of course PC doesn't count anymore.

Taking games away from the competition is such an over exaggeration that it falls under the Outer Space excuse Septic said in his comment. Especially when no one has a problem when third parties exclusively make games for PS4.

I hate to be "obtuse", but your reasons and personal opinions just aren't very convincing in the overall nature of what's going on here.

[DaDrunkenJester]

@Ziggur

I think now that they will have all these extra studios that will really expand their library and variety that its fine if they have dedicated crews working on 3 of their biggest IP's.

[Kribwalker]

makes no sense. If these smaller companies don’t have to worry about how they will make next payroll etc, it gives them more time to create. And with less stress involved, the creative juices really get a chance to start flowing

[rainslacker]

Yeah, being part of an in house publisher house does have it's advantages. Indie development does take a lot of work on the part of the producers and managers, as they are scrutinized pretty hard by investors both before they're given money, and at each step of the development process, while publishing houses tend to have a better work flow on keeping tabs on the progress of work. A failure at a indie dev could mean the end of the company, which it can take more work to be shut down as an in house publisher.

There are down sides too, but I need to remain positive, and none of those down sides are specific to any one publisher.

Anyhow, I wish all these newly acquired, or created studios the best of luck in the future.

[Gazondaily]

"Microsoft was very clear in their desire to give us resources to improve our quality while we continue to bring our unique style of games to our fans,"

"We also spent quite a bit of time with the development groups they purchased and their teams could not have been more enthusiastic about how fortunate they felt to finally be given the time and money to create"

This bodes very well for Xbox in the future. That kind of enthusiasm and creative freedom is what will help ensure these studios are poised to produce titles to the best of their abilities.

[RememberThe357]

And if they're beginning to network together that's an even better sign that MS is taking publishing more seriously now. Seems to help Sonys studios a lot.

BTW anyone think we'll ever get a remake of Jade Empire? Anyone? Please?

[Gazondaily]

Highly doubt we'll get a Jade Empire remake or sequel

[RememberThe357]

😭

[timotim]

Exactly! I'm tired of fanboys on this site trying to tell me how it is with their biased spin, I'd rather here directly from the creators themselves!

Gamers want to bring up things that happened over 10-15 years ago as some sort of proof...i want to hear about the present and what's happening NOW!

Microsoft seems to be topped in and I love the moves they are making.

[Kribwalker]

there really is no denying it, what you are saying is 100% correct and all the white noise coming from others about these moves is coming from the same people that have been calling for MS to up there first party studios. And they’ve only just begun, so i’m sure the noise is gonna only get louder from those folks next year

[TheColbertinator]

Fargo will make amazing games under Lord Phil. Thank you Microsoft. We love you

[Mylove1516]

Im just happy that people have an income to provide for their families and we get more games. This obsessive and sometimes ignorant loyalty for a piece of plastic is ridiculous. Be glad the hobby we love is growing and be happy and shut up.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Good proof right here ;)