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Xbox at gamescom 2016, no press conference, will hold fan event instead
- Thread starter Bits N Pieces
- Start date
SlickShoesRUCrazy
Member
Not surprising that it seems like they don't have anything new to show.
343 is working on Halo Wars 2 and Halo 6 obviously.
The Coalition are finishing up Gears 4 and probably in early stages for something else gears related.
Mojang has minecraft.
Turn 10 is working on Forza 7 most likely and MS' focus is on Horizon 3.
Rare is working on Sea of Thieves and it's rumored that they have 2 other smaller games right?
That leaves their 2nd party exclusives, ReCore and Crackdown and Crackdown probably won't be shown until 2017 it seems. Scalebound isn't out till 2017 either(was it playable at E3?)
Most of their games for the next year are playable in some form from E3. Makes sense to just give people hand on time instead of spending the money on another conference 2 months after E3.
I really do hope though that MS has plans to expand their internal game development.
343 is working on Halo Wars 2 and Halo 6 obviously.
The Coalition are finishing up Gears 4 and probably in early stages for something else gears related.
Mojang has minecraft.
Turn 10 is working on Forza 7 most likely and MS' focus is on Horizon 3.
Rare is working on Sea of Thieves and it's rumored that they have 2 other smaller games right?
That leaves their 2nd party exclusives, ReCore and Crackdown and Crackdown probably won't be shown until 2017 it seems. Scalebound isn't out till 2017 either(was it playable at E3?)
Most of their games for the next year are playable in some form from E3. Makes sense to just give people hand on time instead of spending the money on another conference 2 months after E3.
I really do hope though that MS has plans to expand their internal game development.
DeadOnions
Member
New game announcments will probably happen when Scorpio is fully revealed. There'd be little point having a conference just for footage of known entities.
DriftingSpirit
Member
When do you think Scorpio will be fully revealed?
JumPeRJumPzZ
Banned
I expect a Spring 2017 Event
Salty Hippo
Member
Not sure where you got the 17 number from. She just says 14. We have 11 confirmed:
Killer Instinct
ReCore
Forza Horizon 3
Gears 4
Dead Rising 4 (published by MGS)
Halo Wars 2
Scalebound
Sea of Thieves
Crackdown 3
State of Decay 2
Phantom Dust HD
Not ready to be talked about, my guesses:
Forza 7
Some second party deal for a $40 game a la ReCore, likely a new IP
Small game at $20, could be a new Ori or Battletoads
Total: 14
Edit: Maybe they count Minecraft and its updates as one of those games (they do it for KI). So scratch the 2nd party deal if that's the case. If you really think about it, having just 14 games in any stage of development is kind of fucking alarming for their long term strategy.
ReCore is releasing in September.
ThoughtsOfSpeaking
Banned
I've said it before and I'll say it again
Microsofts European strategy pre-scorpio (and for many countries post too) is "download windows 10".
They have given competing worldwide a good bash, but right now the priority is console marketshare in English speaking countries, with everyone else hopefully hoovered up by PC.
Microsofts European strategy pre-scorpio (and for many countries post too) is "download windows 10".
They have given competing worldwide a good bash, but right now the priority is console marketshare in English speaking countries, with everyone else hopefully hoovered up by PC.
Chobel
Member
I don't think continued support for a game is considered a "game in production" otherwise that would include Halo 5 and Minecraft, so KI is most likely not counted in those 14 games.
And DR4 also most likely won't be considered as first party since it's published by Microsoft Studios and not Microsoft Game Studios.
SenseiAsad
Member
Salty Hippo
Member
DeadOnions
Member
Same. Probably around May like the one they had for the XB1.
digoutyoursoul
Member
I thought their E3 was underwhelming. Sorry if I'm wrong but they had two AAA game announcements in Dead Rising 4 (is that a timed exclusive?) and Forza Horizon 3 which I thought looked good but I'm kinda done on the Horizon series now and Motorsport I have lost interest in after 4. Just two, is that it? When the conference finished I said to myself that I hope they have some more announcements. I guess not.
Yes they announced Scorpio but it was all talk, if it's the most powerful console then fine, cool but I want to see them bring more diverse AAA stuff. I'm tired of the studios they own bringing the same retail IP most of the time.
I suspect we already know what two games will be at E3 2017, Halo 6 & Forza 7. No disrespect to the fans of those series' but that's lame, predictable, boring from my own personal view.
I think I'm just burned out on the brand, for all the money I have spent on it over the years I find myself being more negative than positive about it the last couple of years.
Yes they announced Scorpio but it was all talk, if it's the most powerful console then fine, cool but I want to see them bring more diverse AAA stuff. I'm tired of the studios they own bringing the same retail IP most of the time.
I suspect we already know what two games will be at E3 2017, Halo 6 & Forza 7. No disrespect to the fans of those series' but that's lame, predictable, boring from my own personal view.
I think I'm just burned out on the brand, for all the money I have spent on it over the years I find myself being more negative than positive about it the last couple of years.
Dragon Puncher
Member
This sounds like no new announcements as well..
Chobel
Member
Oh well.
Mr.Fletcher
Member
I reckon we'll see some fresh stuff from known entities such as Recore and Gears 4. Can't see many big new announcements.
You forgot Halo 6, which is likely due in 2018.
I think it's a good lineup. It's just we've known about most of them for a long time.
Salty Hippo
Member
I was giving MS/343 the benefit of the doubt, maybe they could be, like, incubating some fresh ideas? But you're right, it's stupid to even consider that.
So the "not ready to be talked about yet" list is probably:
Forza 7
Halo 6
Battletoads/Ori
Phil, ya dun goofed. Step the fuck down you fraud.
Not /s
She's the head of first-party publishing. Doesn't make sense to me to exclude internal development. Any any case she also left out Halo Wars 2 and Horizon 3 which are also 2nd-party. I think she just said whatever popped into her head first?
It's certainly a weird statement though.
LukasTaves
Member
For game announcements yeah.
This year they had a press only conference for their spring showcase, where Phil all but announced a new console and their plans to unify the win stores.
Then there was build with more platform features announced as well.
digoutyoursoul
Member
Is State of Decay 2 classed as AAA?
Two games announced this year in that category
That's weak in my opinion
Scorpio or not
Two games announced this year in that category
That's weak in my opinion
Scorpio or not
Bits N Pieces
Member
Yeah, no idea why I typed 17? It says 14 right in the quote I quoted lol
digoutyoursoul
Member
Halo 6 coming also
Not surprising really is it? If you look at their studio ownership they don't have a lot which releases games in the AAA category and the ones that do are more or less same IP factories.
I think Phil Spencer is a decent guy but I'm definitely a Xbox fan who is not in the "In Phil We Trust" category that's for sure.
Chobel
Member
The first one wasn't, but 2nd one seems like it has much bigger budget judging by its graphics. Any idea about the number of employees in Undead Labs?
Mr.Fletcher
Member
While I get where you're coming from and play my PS4 much more than my XBO overall, I think the latter's line-up looks really solid for the end of the year.
I'll end up playing more XBO by December, no doubt. Gears of War, Recore, Forza and Dead Rising are all appealing to me.
Three of those are tried and tested franchises, but MS has also invested in some big new games in recent years - Quatum Break and Sunset Overdrive ultimately didn't pay off (and I don't expect Scalebound will either) but I think they've been trying.
Sony had much stronger announcements at E3 I agree, but I don't think they've been pulling up any trees either.
digoutyoursoul
Member
I like their ecosystem and controller but I wish they were a bit more like Sony in terms of diversity and portfolio. 343 and the Coalition working on something that isn't Halo or Gears seems too much to ask for. Would another studio alongside Rare be out of the question for some fresh ideas/new IP?
It's stuff like that I find jarring, how predictable they are at times.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
I hope this means a dedicated event of their own, but honestly...do they have enough stuff to show for that? Sure they can show more of the games we know about, but does that warrant a full show? I reckon they will want to keep stuff for the Scorpio unveiling.
If this list is correct (it seems quite plausible to me), then that is really strange: all these games release this year or in 2017. Is Shannon Loftis saying that they only have three unannounced games in development at all for beyond 2017? Seeing as two are probably known (Halo 6 and Forza 7), is Microsoft producing only one other title? If this is true, then Microsoft will have very few titles of their own for 2018 and 2019. How does this work? Are they stopping the production of non-mainstream games (Halo, Gears, Forza) and is this a first sign (or is my reasoning off here?)?
digoutyoursoul
Member
I think they are having a fan event. I'm not sure if that means being similar to Sony's the past couple of years, a briefing and then the show floor or just having a show floor event with playable demos of this years games.
Mr.Fletcher
Member
Funnily enough, I bought the XBO on release day because I've always preferred Microsoft's controllers and UI but I've ended up on the other side of fence somehow.
I'm not against studios working on one franchise.
However, Microsoft has completely mismanaged it's other studios - which has been fatal because it didn't have many to begin with.
It's a nice idea, but in late 2014 Bonnie Ross said 343 intends to keep Halo going for 3 decades. Since they took over in 2007 that means they'll probably focus on Halo through the mid 2030's at the least.
DriftingSpirit
Member
Yeah, 343 and Coalition are dedicated to Halo and Gears respectively. Expecting anything else is just setting yourself up to get mad for no reason. They've made it clear what the purpose of those studios is.
Salty Hippo
Member
Your reasoning is perfect. Let's hope she was just spewing out nonsense.
If it wasn't for Scorpio I'd be certain this was Microsoft getting ready to close shop as a platform holder and just make Halo/Gears/Forza forever. It's really weird. E3 2017 is gonna be more make or break than ever for them. They really need to come out guns fucking blazing. Make a separate event for Scorpio and spend at least half of the 90-minute E3 conference showering people with new game annoucements.
digoutyoursoul
Member
I don't see the media asking Spencer these sort of things regarding studios and their output of the same IPs. Personally I think they missed a good opportunity when EA bought Bioware, maybe they tried I don't know.
I understand how difficult it is to run a brand like Xbox or PlayStation or Nintendo, I don't want to criticise too much as I have never been in a role like that however as a fan I would like the Xbox guys on social media to maybe listen to the more constructive criticism side of things a little more. It seems more of a pat on the back sort of thing the last year or so and whilst I think things have improved I feel they can do more.
JumPeRJumPzZ
Banned
We dont know yet if Sony will ignore GamesCom this year.
Sangetsu-II
Member
Money and Third Party deals is how it works boy.
I'm a fan of the Xbox brand, but I agree with you that their posturing and reorganizing does seem puzzling. Scorpio and Win10 synergy clearly shows they're around for some sort of gaming ecosystem into the future, but how much of a role they'll have in software dev/publishing seems cloudy.
I posted this list before E3, which I've update here, and it paints a strange picture:
> Closed Press Play (multiple games)
> Closed Lionhead (multiple games; Fable)
> Discontinued partnership with Twisted Pixel
> No word from BigPark
> Cancelled Fable Legends
> Cancelled Gigantic (but it may continue without them)
> Delayed Scaledbound to 2017
> Delayed Halo Wars 2 to 2017
> Delayed Sea of Thieves to 2017
> Delayed Crackdown to 2017; summer 2016 "multiplayer experience" never arrived
> Cancelled Phantom Dust (now getting an old-gen port)
> Meaningful exclusive indies have been slow to arrive (Below, Cuphead, etc)
> Not a lot of original IP being announced for late 2017 and beyond
When you lay it all out, it paints a strange picture of their gaming portfolio. I get that they seem to be circling the wagons around the few franchises they have and cutting the fat, but they run the risk of sort of losing any identity or spark, especially as the brands they do have get long in the tooth.
I hope they figure it out for the future.
DriftingSpirit
Member
It isn't surprising to me. The same thing happened with the X360. MS started out the gate good/great but support dried up toward the end of the generation as they put all their efforts into X1 and making sure they had several major titles for the launch and first year.
Salty Hippo
Member
360 support dried up at least 3 years before the X1 launched, and the reason was Kinect. Now they have all the reasons in the world to do the opposite, but they don't. They look like they accepted defeat and don't give a shit anymore.
Scorpio is not an excuse to hold out games. It's just an upgrade, everything will run on everything.
TwistedPixel's last game LocoCycle was poorly received.
BigPark was dissolved after their short stint as an multimedia app developer (Bonaroo, NFL).
I think the publishing deal with Motiga for Gigantic was ended because they didn't hit their milestones. The game was suppose to release in 2015.
Fable Legends being cancelled seems to have to do with the fact it also didn't hit its milestones as it was delayed multiple times, it cost a small fortune of around $75 million, and player feedback was pretty mixed.
I don't think Sea of Thieves ever had a target date on it?
Chobel
Member
I see that now, as part of the closing of Lionhead, Press Play, etc. Another strike against.
Tatsumi Oga
Banned
Man there's some quite doom talk about Xbox here. I agree that Microsoft should invest in new studios or at least new exclusives, but let's not start comparing it to 360's last three years yet. They have a nice list of upcoming games and i reckon they have more to show and announce closer to E3 next year or maybe for the Scorpio reveal.
I think they're focusing on the studios most likely to bring in new users and revenue. That will reduce the size of the target on their back when MS leadership goes looking for cost centers to reduce or cut.
Press Play's experiment with Project Knoxville was struggling to get players for the beta. Lionhead's Fable Legends was super expensive, delayed, and had very little hype around it, plus a lot of negative reactions (e.g., this isn't Fable!, where's Fable 4?!, etc.). Twisted Pixel released a bomb (LocoCycle) and then MS let them go about 2 years later, so it would seem MS didn't see anything worth keeping. I think MS made the right business decision for those studios.
On top of those, the big AAA investments like Ryse, Sunset Overdrive, and Quantum Break were likely met with less fanfare than they hoped (I imagine MS was hoping for multi-million sellers). They wanted to fund Ryse 2 in exchange for IP ownership, but Crytek said no and MS walked away. They've probably seen the mixed reactions to Scalebound.
It's unfortunate, but they came into the gen with the right intentions (at least on the game side) and it seems like a string of bad luck that has probably cost Xbox a lot of money. Tightening their belt on first-party investments, including publishing deals, seems pretty reasonable all things considered.
EDIT: Forgot Team Dakota, an internal MS team, was also dissolved after Project Spark didn't catch on.
Hockeymac18
Member
I think this is somewhat true of what has been happening lately in regards to MS' game output. People keep screaming "we want new IP!" - and actually, MS has been releasing new (and at times innovative) IP - the problem is, much of that new IP hasn't been lighting sales charts on fire (I do think most have sold well enough to pay for their production costs, and a bit more - but I'm sure they wanted/expected more).
I think what people really want when they say "new IP" is "new AMAZING IP!" - and that's really, really hard to both develop and predict (as in what game will "catch on" next).
Sangetsu-II
Member
Huh?, I don't think you and I saw the same XB1 reveal.
I'm most definitely sure that their way of thinking coming into this gen is what started their wave of misfortune, not really bad luck.