Support NeoGAF

[PSlayer]

I'm baffled by how many people still act like Phill Spencer is some kind of savior of the xbox brand. All he does is say things people want to hear even though most of the time he fails to meet his own promises. It's been almost a decade of this. People trash Don mattrick but forget that phill spencer was part of his team when every questionable decision made back in the late xbox 360 era/early xbox one was done.

The only thing he did right was to backtrack the awful early design decisions like always online and need of kinect, which realistically anyone, including mattrick himself, would eventually do because it was the only reasonable way to save the brand from going the Sega way. How many exclusive ips failed to deliver or were just outright cancelled? How many times did spencer promised to do better with japanese games? They spent 2.5 billions in fucking minecraft,a game that can't be turned into a franchise and a lot of people already had.They didn't buy Bungie,or Bioware or even Remedy at a time were not only they could but sony was doing it with Naughty dog,MediaMolecule and others.

Then what about their big IPs? Gears of war and halo lost their relevance,the latter was run into the ground by 343i, and Forza,although pretty good, is a racing game and therefore niche, Fable is MiA for a long time. I honestly don't think Bethesda and Activision were good buys simply because i don't think MS will be able to properly manage the undelying IPs.

 

[The Eradicator]

Please show me where I suggested anyone fire Todd Howard.

You don't need to, I've been suggesting it for years. Fire Todd Howard! He lost his passion for games many years ago... and throw Pete Hines out too. His position is entirely superfluous anyway at this point.

 

[Lupin25]

Ehh. Nope. He is talking about Psychonauts 2, Age of Empires IV, Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5.

But it's funny. Because Phil does not get credit for quality of Deathloop from Bethesda, but somehow he gets blame for Starfield and Redfall delays from Bethesda

He doesn’t deserve credit or blame for either game’s development.

But he does take the blame for purchasing a publisher without games ready for his consumers. They should’ve purchased elsewhere, if possible.

He bought Bethesda knowing what the progress was on Deathloop (PS5 exclusive) GhostWire Tokyo (PS5 exclusive), Starfield, Redfall, all of them lol…

Edit: So tell me… Why buy them at the time knowing this? Why not make an offer to another publisher/studio and wait until ZeniMax had a steady flow into next-gen?

 

[BeardGawd]

Sorry, that's bullshit. We're not talking about launch with ZERO software or the problems at The Initiative or 343 or Playground Games or UndeadLabs. And we're not talking about Halo being delayed and (while a great game) still launching with anemic content. And we're not talking about Halo taking SIX MONTHS post launch to get us 2 maps (with no new maps coming- apparently- for 4-6 more months). This is a NEW thing we're talking about.

I'm a fan of Phil and a fan of Xbox but I'm no abused spouse who is ok going back to their abuser over and over. How many chances are you gonna give this guy to do what so many other execs in the biz can do and have done for decades?

Trust me I'm as critical of 343, Rare and other low performing studios as anyone. Perhaps you're right and Phil should take a more hands on approach with the studios but lets also not forget that Phil has gotten MS to spend more on Xbox than ever before. He deserves credit for that at least.

I think the current climate of no crunch and social justice makes coming down hard on studios a public relations nightmare.

Some delays are ok but you're right their current output is not healthy.

 

[BigBooper]

It seems like there’s several contributing factors. Up until the Activision acquisition, XBOX leadership overall seemed very timid since the failed xbone announcement.

Also, Phil has risen through the executive ranks in the midst of every company being accused of mistreating employees and overusing crunch. It seems MS has unlimited money to afford to delay everything and leadership is too afraid to crack the whip and move product.

 

[Elios83]

They obviously have project management issues given what is happening at 343i, Rare, The Initiative and other studios.
Actually the fact that Bethesda needs more time to polish bugs in one of their RPGs is par for the course for them, the only news is that because of what happened to Cyberpunk they now can't afford to release Starfield in the state they released Skyrim and Fallout 4.

But why the therapy?

 

[Zeroing]

Dont forget that studios are not 100% independent. Money and executives play a major role.

If there are so many studios struggling to put out games, maybe its not the studios fault, and theres something more going on behind the scenes.

Anyone who looks at Phil should recognize how he knows no more that posing in front cameras and he anything but genuine.

And dont let the therapy comment distract you. Xbox have been struggling to put out games a long time ago.

It may be Phils fault, or not, but some one is there to blame for that.

I agree with you.
The guy never made a game - fact. that does not mean he is incompetent at his job but we should lower our praise of Phil, there's way more people behind Xbox.
Everyone can agree that he talks more than he delivers. Also how many chances are people still going to give him. Yeah he is likable and seems interested in the fanbase but there's a limit and most people should be drawing a line and say "just deliver already"

I also agree that we have no clue what is going on with the studios, either is pressure, low budget or just MS dictating things... we do not know but that is a problem that has been happening for quite some years.

 

[SJRB]

Microsoft's output has been pretty dogshit though, both in quality and quantity. doubt anyone can deny that.

It's wild to see how many studios they bought and still struggle. Jaffe is a drama queen of course but there are legit questions to be asked about their pipelines and whatnot.

 

[The Eradicator]

Was Phil Spencer actively involved with StarField and Redfall.
Werent they all already deep in development with ZeniMax?


I always assume with AAA games a ~4 year dev cycle, so lets see what these devs could be up to.

The Coalition "remastered" Gears 5 and did Hivebusters in 2020, theyve been getting to grips with UE5, assuming a ~4 year dev cycle even if they started immediately after Hivebusters that would still be a game only coming out in 2024 or 2023 at best.
Turn10 will hopefully show off something at the June event.
The Initiative....I honestly dont know shit about that studio.
Ninja Theory have shown us gameplay of Hellblade 2, and Mara seems to be moving forward, id assume 2023 is a lock for Hellblade atleast.
Rare are working on Everwild, which is in a who knows state because and I agree we havent seen anything after that reveal trailer.
DoubleFine just released Psychonauts 2 we can assume they are in preproduction of their next game/
Compulsion are working on a third person something and will likely show it off at the June event....or atleast announce it.
inXile are still supporting Wasteland 3 and likely atleast someways into preproduction on their next title.
Obsidian announced Outer Worlds 2, the size of those games we shouldnt expect anything soon.
Playground just released FH5, and we know are working on Fable...how far along they are...who knows.
Undead Labs is a mess of a studio and im sure MS regrets buying them/

How is Undead Labs any more of a mess than the rest of the studios? They're still supporting SOD2 with updates too, and way behind on developing their next game. Seems like par for the course with all those studios tbh

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Well. We are talking about ratings on OpenCritic. That's why Ozriel was talking about Xbox having games that had high critics score.
Because when you throw subjective opinion in the mix, then it will get weird. Because there are plenty highly regarded PlayStation and Nintendo games that I don't like. So please, let's not get there. Also, problems with Halo Infinite are slow trickle of new content and some systems in MP. At launch it was a great game.
AoE is not on Xbox, but it is still Xbox Game Studios game. So it counts of course.
Also Ozriel was talking about XGS games. Not AAA specifically. But go on. Move the goal posts ever further.

Facts are.
Xbox was a publisher of a year (according to Metacritic) with 5 games with 80+ rating, 4 games with 85+ rating and 1 game with 90+ rating. When you are counting Deathloop it is 6 games with 80+ rating, 5 games with 85+ rating and 1 game with 90+ rating. If you want to cry about "this game is not AAA" then be my guest. Because it takes nothing from their quality.
Also facts are that Xbox will have probably shit year 2022. And it's their fault because they didn't invested in first-party until 2018. But it is not like that they are not capable to make great games. 2021 is the proof.

1- @ bold, this is called cognitive dissonance

2- Sorry but no, Halo was, is and apparently will continue to be subpar game with a lot of missing content, especially when compared with previous entries in the franchise. And this after the game was delayed for a year. The fact is, even with it being "free" on gamepass, there's virtually nobody playing it. Those are the facts, metacritic score is opinion, and in many cases very biased opinion.

3- Enough with that "publisher of the year" crap, this is the first time anyone heard about that supposed award. Can't take anyone seriously when they use a fake award as some sort of counterpoint.

4- I used the "not AAA" as an example of good management by Double Fine, it's not a dig at them. They played in this space for more than 30 years and although their games are not for everyone, they manage to stay creative and find their target audience. There's nothing "Microsoft" about Double Fine so far, maybe in the future things will change.

 

[Monkeyball]

He is right about the "you suck" part. If you look at the output of Microsoft first party studios the last 10 years, with unlimited money, it's very bad. Spencer is the one responsible.

 

[Pejo]

I don't get the therapy line, but yea, it's time Phil shits or gets off the pot.

I remember a few years ago, we had people cheering him on for buying studios. At the time, I mentioned that he's still got nothing to show for his years at Microsoft other than spending their money. I was told "We're still seeing Mattrick's influence. Games aren't immediate, it's going to take time for these newly purchased studios to release great new games."

Well it's been 8 years since he took over, and xbox's first party is worse than its ever been. After literal billions of dollars spent. And I agree with some posts in this thread, a lot of it feels like mis-management at the top level down.

 

[Godot25]

He doesn’t deserve credit or blame for either game’s development.

But he does take the blame for purchasing a publisher without games ready for his consumers. They should’ve purchased elsewhere, if possible.

He bought Bethesda knowing what the progress was on Deathloop (PS5 exclusive) GhostWire Tokyo (PS5 exclusive), Starfield, Redfall, all of them lol…

Edit: So tell me… Why buy them at the time knowing this? Why not make an offer to another publisher/studio and wait until ZeniMax had a steady flow into next-gen?

What?
It's not like there are publishers growing on trees. This is probably dumbest statement I read ever. Bethesda purchase was a steal in hindsight because Sony just spend 3,6 billion for ONE studio. Microsoft got 8 studios and great IP's for 7,6 billion. And you are not buying them for next 2-3 years. You are buying them for 2-3 decades.

They would be stupid to not do that. And it's not like they did not try elsewhere. They were rumored to be in negotiations with Warner Bros., when they wanted to sell their studios. But that deal feel through because AT&T was greedy and wanted 4,5 billion for their studios without licences necessary for their next games (Gotham Knights, Hogwarts Legacy and Suicide Squad).
And also, Bethesda was a private company that made whole deal easier.

But who cares that MachineGames is making Indiana Jones (and probably Wolf 3), iD is probably making Quake reboot, BGS is making Starfield and TES VI, Arkane is making Redfall and another game, ZOS is making at least one game and Tango is making new game, right? It was stupid purchase because none of those games are ready for 2022 .

Jesus Christ.

I really don't get why Sony bought Bluepoint, Haven, Firespite and Housemarque when none of them have their game ready for 2022

 

[ToTTenTranz]

The Coalition "remastered" Gears 5 and did Hivebusters in 2020, theyve been getting to grips with UE5, assuming a ~4 year dev cycle even if they started immediately after Hivebusters that would still be a game only coming out in 2024 or 2023 at best.

The clock doesn't start ticking after a remaster or DLC. Remasters (not remakes) don't get the bulk of the production teams involved.

Maybe Gears 6 is indeed a 2024 game (it's all pointing out for it to be) but that would put Coalition on a 5 year cadence.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Jaffa makes some good points but in true jaffa fashion its just a little exaggerated and extreme. But, I agree with some of the main points he's making.

I stan for Phil like the next xbox fan. He seems like a genuinely sound dude but there's been some major failures with messaging and managing on out put of games from MS for years now.

 

[Godot25]

The fact is, even with it being "free" on gamepass, there's virtually nobody playing it.

Yeah. Literally nobody is playing Halo Infinite

 

[The Eradicator]

You forgot Halo Infinite, is GAF GotY

Um, definitely mentioned Halo Infinite in my post, try reading it.
And does anyone actually STILL believe that Halo Infinite was GOTY last year? The game is still a mess, and 343 themselves admitted that they're not happy with the way the game is going right now. It got hyped up for some unknown reason. Boring campaign, still without co-op, which was a franchise staple. Extremely limited map rotations, and maybe the worst Battle Pass system ever devised. Still not sure what was special about HI.

 

[anthony2690]

David Jaffe has lost his mind and needs therapy.

I'm baffled by how many people still act like Phill Spencer is some kind of savior of the xbox brand. All he does is say things people want to hear even though most of the time he fails to meet his own promises. It's been almost a decade of this. People trash Don mattrick but forget that phill spencer was part of his team when every questionable decision made back in the late xbox 360 era/early xbox one was done.

The only thing he did right was to backtrack the awful early design decisions like always online and need of kinect, which realistically anyone, including mattrick himself, would eventually do because it was the only reasonable way to save the brand from going the Sega way. How many exclusive ips failed to deliver or were just outright cancelled? How many times did spencer promised to do better with japanese games? They spent 2.5 billions in fucking minecraft,a game that can't be turned into a franchise and a lot of people already had.They didn't buy Bungie,or Bioware or even Remedy at a time were not only they could but sony was doing it with Naughty dog,MediaMolecule and others.

Then what about their big IPs? Gears of war and halo lost their relevance,the latter was run into the ground by 343i, and Forza,although pretty good, is a racing game and therefore niche, Fable is MiA for a long time. I honestly don't think Bethesda and Activision were good buys simply because i don't think MS will be able to properly manage the undelying IPs.

I'm baffled at how many people forget Xbox got publisher of the year last year with the highest meta average ever.

Starfield and Redfall gets delayed and people lose their god damn minds.

Delays suck especially when people are excited for the upcoming games, but let's see whats actually coming and see how starfield and Redfall actually look with their deep dives next month.

A lot of you guys are a little emotionally crazy when it comes to video games...

 

[Zeroing]

I don't get the therapy line, but yea, it's time Phil shits or gets off the pot.

I remember a few years ago, we had people cheering him on for buying studios. At the time, I mentioned that he's still got nothing to show for his years at Microsoft other than spending their money. I was told "We're still seeing Mattrick's influence. Games aren't immediate, it's going to take time for these newly purchased studios to release great new games."

Well it's been 8 years since he took over, and xbox's first party is worse than its ever been. After literal billions of dollars spent. And I agree with some posts in this thread, a lot of it feels like mis-management at the top level down.

That Don Mattrick influence is crap and everyone knows it, it is just an excuse some hardcore fans give. Phil was there on the team, Phil also closed studios after taking over ( apparently money was not an issue ), Phil relied on doing the bare minimum to make their fanbase satisfied and was more than happy to go in all the media validating the narrative of "he turned the boat on the right direction"

Jim Ryan have not done half of that mess and the Playstation fanbase was already making petitions to fire him.

 

[FireFly]

Yeah, i dont get Phil fanclub and lifetime awards. Perfectly well shipping studios reduced to incompetency and delays after Phil acquires them.

Yeah, Fallout 76 and Prey 2 had such smooth development processes. And it's not as if Deathloop and Ghostwire had to be delayed. Or Doom Eternal before that.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Yeah. Literally nobody is playing Halo Infinite

Wasn't this the week they literally released their "Season 2" of content? I'm on to you

Like come on, yes, there was a bump when people think they are going to get their updates lol. Sorry, try again. Taking a money bet that by the end of this week it will drop again as people realized there was no actual content to keep them playing the game.

 

[Godot25]

Wasn't this the week they literally released their "Season 2" of content? I'm on to you

Like come on, yes, there was a bump when people think they are going to get their updates lol. Sorry, try again. Taking a money bet that by the end of this week it will drop again as people realized there was no actual content to keep them playing the game.

Yeah. Before release of Season 2 was Halo Infinite....wait for it...
...7th most popular.

Literally nobody was playing it.

I guess Halo Infinite is new Destiny. "Dead game" that somehow makes millions of dollars per year and have active population.

 

[Naru]

Has David Jaffe done anything since 2017? He is only in the news when some of his critiques of game X or person Y "went viral".

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Well it's been 8 years since he took over, and xbox's first party is worse than its ever been. After literal billions of dollars spent. And I agree with some posts in this thread, a lot of it feels like mis-management at the top level down.

To me it feels more like them not buying most Studios at their peak of productivity. Aside Tango and Arkane who were making a PS5 exclusives and idSoft who had just released Doom Eternal, both of which meaning a Xbox exclusive would be years away.

Bethesda Games Studios seems to be dragging their feet ever since Fallout 76 was such a massive letdown, MachineGames has been completely silent since the mess that was Wolfenstein Youngblood, and Zenimax Online is just a cow-milking MMO maker. Then outside Bethesda/Zenimax the only recently acquired studios that delivered last year were Playground and a bunch of indies/pseudo-indies like double-fine and World's Edge that get lots of gaming journalist points but not a whole lot of actual sales and popularity.


Regardless, my point was that there are indeed many production/execution problems with Microsoft's recent acquisitions but I think they mostly stem for issues that those studios were already having.

 

[Rykan]

David Jaffe has lost his mind and needs therapy.

I'm baffled at how many people forget Xbox got publisher of the year last year with the highest meta average ever.

Starfield and Redfall gets delayed and people lose their god damn minds.

Delays suck especially when people are excited for the upcoming games, but let's see whats actually coming and see how starfield and Redfall actually look with their deep dives next month.

A lot of you guys are a little emotionally crazy when it comes to video games...

I have no idea why people keep bringing up that Xbox got "Publisher of the year". That means less than nothing.

Do you know how they got publisher of the year? Because they released Psychonauts 2, Forza Horizon 5 and Flight Simulator. Psychonauts 2 was a multiplatform game that got funded through kickstarter, MS is just the publisher because they've bought Double Fine.

Winning "publisher of the year" based on a multiplatform game, a flying simulator and an actual game doesn't mean anything. Compare the amount of first party games released on PS5 and then compare it to series console. Then look at what Sony put out on PS4 the last few years and compare that to MS's output.

The difference is obvious.

 

[Zeroing]

I'm a fan of Phil and a fan of Xbox but I'm no abused spouse who is ok going back to their abuser over and over. How many chances are you gonna give this guy to do what so many other execs in the biz can do and have done for decades?

Oh stockholm syndrome!!!

 

[Bernd Lauert]

Jaffe, would you start making games again if Uncle Phil hired you to do so?

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

Yeah. Before release of Season 2 was Halo Infinite....wait for it...
...7th most popular.

Literally nobody was playing it.

I guess Halo Infinite is new Destiny. "Dead game" that somehow makes millions of dollars per year and have active population.

A free to play game that came out a few months ago, hyped to infinity (pun intended ) which has been the consoles mascot since the OG Xbox was... 7th most played the week before the "big" update came.

Please, don't mention Halo and Destiny in the same sentence, I don't like Destiny much, but it's definitely much more successful. How's that coop campaign going?

 

[Ozriel]

The notion that none of these studios could possibly be ready with games after 4 years is pretty clearly belied in the fact that a 4 year dev cycle is fairly normal in today's environment. FROM Software just pushed out Elden Ring, the probable GOTY, a mere couple of years after releasing Sekiro, a previous GOTY winner. Not to mention they pumped out Bloodborne and Dark Souls III in back to back years, making it 4 highly regarded games launched in just SEVEN YEARS from one studio!
I'm also seeing a lot of sequels to games that launched in 2017-2018 coming out right about now, once again proving that we should be seeing something from the MS studios by this point, but we're not. It is entirely reasonable for players to expect these studio acquisitions to start putting games out.

Y’all pump out wrong information so confidently.
Elden Ring started development in 2017, making it 5 years of development.

Imagine opening a post about development time and starting with Bloodborne release in 2015. You think they started making the game in the same year of release? Bloodborne development started in 2012.

Sekiro, Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne took three years to make, from a mature studio, utilizing the same engine and making a game with the same overarching themes.

Hardly the same scenario with something like Starfield that’s entirely new and much bigger in scope. Or for a new IP multiplayer shooter like Redfall where a polished launch is extremely critical for long term survival.

I'm also seeing a lot of sequels to games that launched in 2017-2018 coming out right about now, once again proving that we should be seeing something from the MS studios by this point, but we're not.

i don’t believe it’s Spencer’s fault that Sony paid for one year exclusivity for two such games that fall into this category - Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop.

 

[VolticArchangel]

davidjaffe I don't need to tell you, how kinda unprofessional this is, for someone of your stature in the industry, to publicly call out executives on social media, which could honestly start a snowball of dogpiling them.

You could have just called Phil and I'm sure he would have 5 minutes to hear you out.

Also, sets a bad example for current and future indie devs out there on how to behave with their colleagues.

Not cool, David. Not cool.

 

[kingfey]

A free to play game that came out a few months ago, hyped to infinity (pun intended ) which has been the consoles mascot since the OG Xbox was... 7th most played the week before the "big" update came.

Please, don't mention Halo and Destiny in the same sentence, I don't like Destiny much, but it's definitely much more successful. How's that coop campaign going?

Providing years of content does that to you.
Give that f2p halo a year, and it will be where they should be.

 

[Godot25]

A free to play game that came out a few months ago, hyped to infinity (pun intended ) which has been the consoles mascot since the OG Xbox was... 7th most played the week before the "big" update came.

Please, don't mention Halo and Destiny in the same sentence, I don't like Destiny much, but it's definitely much more successful. How's that coop campaign going?

My point still stands. 7th most played is not "nobody is playing it". Maybe if you are an idiot. If you are then okay. I'm not arguing.

I used Destiny as an example not because I wan to compare them, but because mainstream press and "general public" also claimed that Destiny is dead 2 months after release of first game. While game was getting better and better with stable population. And yes. Destiny is successful now. But I remember launch of vanilla Destiny and Destiny 2. It was painful. So let's not pretend that Destiny was good from beginning.

 

[BigBooper]

davidjaffe I don't need to tell you, how kinda unprofessional this is, for someone of your stature in the industry, to publicly call out executives on social media, which could honestly start a snowball of dogpiling them.

You could have just called Phil and I'm sure he would have 5 minutes to hear you out.

Also, sets a bad example for current and future indie devs out there on how to behave with their colleagues.

Not cool, David. Not cool.

Phil won't have sex with you, dude.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

My point still stands. 7th most played is not "nobody is playing it". Maybe if you are an idiot. If you are then okay. I'm not arguing.

I used Destiny as an example not because I wan to compare them, but because mainstream press and "general public" also claimed that Destiny is dead 2 months after release of first game. While game was getting better and better with stable population. And yes. Destiny is successful now. But I remember launch of vanilla Destiny and Destiny 2. It was painful. So let's not pretend that Destiny was good from beginning.

Taking things too literally is sometimes a symptom of autism. Obviously i didn't mean literally zero people are playing it. Even Babylon's Fall has at least 1 player

There was only one person in the world playing Babylon's Fall on PC earlier this week​

By Ted Litchfield published 6 days ago
The game's player count has since stabilized to around 20-50.

There was only one person in the world playing Babylon's Fall on PC earlier this week

The game's player count has since stabilized to around 20-50.

www.pcgamer.com

I think you forgot the point Destiny has Bungie working on it, Xbox has... 343 Industries

 

[kingfey]

i don’t believe it’s Spencer’s fault that Sony paid for one year exclusivity for two such games that fall into this category - Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop.

MS would have had these games on their system by now.
The problem is they aren't ruthless like Sony.

 

[The Eradicator]

Y’all pump out wrong information so confidently.
Elden Ring started development in 2017, making it 5 years of development.

Imagine opening a post about development time and starting with Bloodborne release in 2015. You think they started making the game in the same year of release? Bloodborne development started in 2012.

Sekiro, Dark Souls 3 and Bloodborne took three years to make, from a mature studio, utilizing the same engine and making a game with the same overarching themes.

Hardly the same scenario with something like Starfield that’s entirely new and much bigger in scope. Or for a new IP multiplayer shooter like Redfall where a polished launch is extremely critical for long term survival.




i don’t believe it’s Spencer’s fault that Sony paid for one year exclusivity for two such games that fall into this category - Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop.

Good job ignoring the point entirely!

 

[kingfey]

Taking things too literally is sometimes a symptom of autism. Obviously i didn't mean literally zero people are playing it. Even Babylon's Fall has at least 1 player

There was only one person in the world playing Babylon's Fall on PC earlier this week​

By Ted Litchfield published 6 days ago
The game's player count has since stabilized to around 20-50.

There was only one person in the world playing Babylon's Fall on PC earlier this week

The game's player count has since stabilized to around 20-50.

www.pcgamer.com

I think you forgot the point Destiny has Bungie working on it, Xbox has... 343 Industries

None of that meaning nothing, when the 2 game are different.

343i delivered the SP mode.
This is just the MP mode.

MP doesn't bring the same users as the SP mode, since you are doing the same shit all day.

MP needs exciting contents like BR these days to attract big crowds.

 

[SkylineRKR]

Is there something wrong with Microsoft's management? yes. Its not normal that you launch a console without a next-gen exclusive in the first place. There was nothing that could only be done on Series X. Sony did this better, after all they manned up and released Demon's Souls and Astrobot. Both games took advantage of the PS5's features. Since then they've built a decent exclusive library already.

FH5 was nothing wrong with, Its a good game. Albeit a lot like the previous one, but a good game. Halo is another obvious piece of mismanagement. The previous 2 were trash, and Infinite was delayed by quite a bit only to release with a cut and paste campaign, a very bare bones multiplayer, awful BP, no co-op, forge and basically nothing that Halo used to have at launch day. And today, its still very bare.

Gamepass is good, but imagine if MS had Sony's rate of output. So, Demon's, Returnal, Ratchet, GT7, Horizon 2 all on it day one. How good would it then be? GP is still good value, but not for MS exclusives. I think you can't have both anyway. Sony isn't going to follow suit and their business model works.

 

[Zeroing]

Yeah. Literally nobody is playing Halo Infinite

Can you make that on MS Office Excel spreadsheet? My MS Windows PC seems to having trouble opening the image, I keep clicking it with my MS Arc mouse and nothing happens...

 

[kingfey]

That is enough of good outrage.

I wonder if people would keep the same energy, after the xbox showcase.

I remember people went in to retreat mode, after bashing xbox before their e3 last year.

 

[Filben]

who the fuck is Dave Jaffe? and why should I care what he's on about?

 

[March Climber]

That is enough of good outrage.

I wonder if people would keep the same energy, after the xbox showcase.

I remember people went in to retreat mode, after bashing xbox before their e3 last year.

I thought about bringing forth this argument, but then I realized this isn't about game reveals, it's about game releases. If you keep teasing the hungry with gourmet food eventually they will lash out at you.

As far as 3rd party games go, it's going to be a great show for Xbox. I'm just worried about 1st party.

 

[GHG]

MS got publisher of the year 2021. Phil isn't doing so bad.

Well I don't think they need to change anything at all in that case then.

Keep it up I say, tell Phil I think he's doing a fantastic job, that he needs to ignore the noise and keep doing what he's doing. No improvements necessary.

 

[MrTentakel]

He has a 15 years run of overpromising and underdelivering.

 

[kingfey]

I thought about bringing forth this argument, but then I realized this isn't about game reveals, it's about game releases. If you keep teasing the hungry with gourmet food eventually they will lash out at you.

As far as 3rd party games go, it's going to be a great show for Xbox. I'm just worried about 1st party.

We are in post covid effect. Alot of games got delayed because of that. This isn't xbox only. They are getting the end of stick, because of that.

Most of these games would have seen the day light by now.

 

[Ozriel]

I thought about bringing forth this argument, but then I realized this isn't about game reveals, it's about game releases. If you keep teasing the hungry with gourmet food eventually they will lash out at you.

But these are the same ‘hungry’ folks that will lash out even worse if games get released in a broken state, or with poor reviews.
Sometimes games just need more time. Not every delay has to be about ‘mismanagement’ or ‘development hell’.

Hogwarts Legacy got delayed but that’s still one of the most anticipated games here, and David Jaffe didn’t release a wild video attacking the studio head.

As far as 3rd party games go, it's going to be a great show for Xbox. I'm just worried about 1st party.

Actually, first party games are most likely what will drive the show. We’re most certainly getting a first look at highly anticipated projects, including Starfield and Avowed. Plus much More accurate release dates.

 

[Zeroing]

That is enough of good outrage.

I wonder if people would keep the same energy, after the xbox showcase.

I remember people went in to retreat mode, after bashing xbox before their e3 last year.

That is not how I remember things...

 

[leizzra]

Microsoft is bad in managing their studios, it's known for long time now. Phil didn't changed that, he even made it worse - last gen Fable (canceled even though it was finished - I have even artbook for this game and that didn't launched), Crackdown, Scalebound, focus on Halo, Forza and Gears (it's a mixed bag, there are good things in it). Remember problems with Sea of Thieves? Or his stance on games as a service and single player? The Initiative studio isn't doing ok. Compered to Sony they are bad. That's why I'm glad that Bethesda and Activision are to operate independently - it give's hope that those studio will have good future. But there is also a possibility that Microsoft will try to manage them and it'll be a disaster. Even Sony wouldn't be able to manage that many studios (maybe I'm wrong, but it would be very difficult).

So, Jeffy maybe didn't articulated it in a good way but he has right. But this is how he is. Still he has a lot of experience and knowledge that most of people here doesn't.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

who the fuck is Dave Jaffe? and why should I care what he's on about?

Oh, no one really...

davidjaffe

 

[kingfey]

That is not how I remember things...

I remember correctly, how people called it very dry, considering they launched a console without any 1st party games.

Turned out, no one really gave a shit about it, after that e3.

Most of the voices are people who aren't patient and don't understand things need a time, especially when covid took out a huge chunk of devs time.

4 years from now, people won't care about this period.