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[Razvedka]

How tiresome must it be to constantly swing your big acquisition dick around buying studios left and right, and at the same time having to constantly apologize for poor content.

Where are the games, Phill? At some point buying all those studios is going to pay off, right?

I view the acquisitions by Microsoft as the 'kiss of death' for those studios. Really hope I'm wrong, because man am I in love with TES, Fallout and Doom. But with history as my guide, there's no real reason to be optimistic.

 

[M1chl]

Wait till next year™

 

[Ozriel]

I have an XSX and GP sub until 2025.

You can be a fan while still critical of their output and continual apologies. I’d like to use my Xbox more

There’s a difference between being ‘critical of their output’ and what you’re doing when you cast the delays of Starfield and Redfall as some sort of terrible mismanagement while knowing that post-CoVID delays have been an industry wide phenomenon.

I’d like to use my Xbox more

while they’ve been light on AAA titles for this year, they’ve tried to bridge the gap on GP with stuff like Plague’s Tale, High On Life, Grounded etc. it’s certainly a choice not to engage with those.

 

[skneogaf]

Forza horizon 5 and flight simulator is the only AAA games I think of by them in recent years, I don't class halo that high any more.

Garbage like scorn and other game pass level games are not worthy of our money or time.

 

[TonyK]

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

I really appreciate him wearing gamer t-shirts. He's just like one of us.

 

[solidus12]

I really appreciate him wearing gamer t-shirts. He's just like one of us.

#CreativeChatter

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

As an Xbox primary gamer its been wat to long. Outside of pentiment XGS hasn't had anything that interested me this year. But I'm patient for what they are offering, in the mean time I've been enjoying Sony Studios and third party games. But Xbox having a borderline monopoly on western rpgs is what excites me the most as my favorite genre.

 

[jm89]

Wait till next year™

We here you™

 

[DeaDPo0L84]

Starfield's gonna be a juggernaut.

I'm gonna play it (on PC) but sorry they don't get to toot their own horn for simply buying a publisher and making the game console exclusive. I want them to actually use existing talent to produce new and exciting games. It's what I've been hoping for so long now and they simply don't seem to have the people in place to push developers to do such a thing.

 

[Banjo64]

so because it effect Sony and Nintendo last year it must effect Microsoft in the same year?

No? I’m just saying that the excuse of covid doesn’t hold up because the other 2 console manufacturers (who have less studios) have still produced multiple high profile games a year.

 

[fermcr]

"Phil Spencer acknowledges ‘it’s been too long’ since Xbox’s last big first-party game"

 

[Fredrik]

Things I think:

1. FH5 is a massive franchise. But it needs some refinement. It's like pier entertainment. I think it needs to be smaller but deeper.
2. You can't release your flagship IP like Halo with a 'what could have been' tail...and I say that as someone who doesn't mind infinite personally
3. Asobo, Ninja Theory and The Coalition all have the chops to step up and offer the type of cinematic games that Sony's 1st Parties are famed for. I don't think the IPs they have are strong enough though. With the possible exception of gears (but even that needs a reboot).
4. Games like State of Decay 3 and Redfall need investing in heavily.
5. There is so much riding on Forza Motorsport next year.

They need to be able to clearly identify which of their IPs are flagship. Otherwise they will get lost and the quality will suffer.

3. Asobo isn’t MS 1st party, they’re just contracted for MS Flight Sim.
4. Agreed when it comes to State of Decay 3. I loved SoD2, with a big budget and talent to polish it up nicely SoD3 could be fantastic. Deserves to be a proper AAA title.

 

[Thirty7ven]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

 

[cormack12]

3. Asobo isn’t MS 1st party, they’re just contracted for MS Flight Sim.
4. Agreed when it comes to State of Decay 3. I loved SoD2, with a big budget and talent to polish it up nicely SoD3 could be fantastic. Deserves to be a proper AAA title.

Oh yeah good point. So even Plague Tale won't be exclusive. Why did I think they were first party?

 

[dotnotbot]

Microsoft NextYear'sBox™

 

[TheGecko]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

We can just go on to play something else from the vast library owned by MS…. What you gonna play in 2 years time boy? STAY IN YOUR LANE.

 

[Fredrik]

Oh yeah good point. So even Plague Tale won't be exclusive. Why did I think they were first party?

A Plague Tale is Asobo’s own game and IP and is out on all platforms already. Maybe you got confused when it was on Gamepass day 1?

 

[jm89]

What you gonna play in 2 years time boy?

 

[Paperclip Killa]

Phil Spencer has been uncharacteristically honest these last few weeks. What is going on? Usually he can never give a straight answer.

He' not giving a straight answer, he's on some random podcast with guys who have no clout in gaming doings a softball interview making himself appear humble. The same thing he did with that WSJ 'journalists" with the emo hair and the 50 tattoos showing off skin

 

[Shadowstar39]

Starfield looks amazing.

Redfall on the other hand, good god. I am convinced it is going to be the next Deathloop. MS will try to pull a Sony and shove this game down our throat but at the end of the day it will be forgotten like deathloop which didnt even hit top 20 on NPD last year despite all those State of Plays.

Arkhane needs to become a support studio. I dont know who these games are for, but clearly no one cares. And by no one, i mean niche. I am sure there are a few hundred thousand prey and dishonored fans out there. Just do support work for real studios like ID Software, Bethesda and Avalanche. If Bethesda is too busy with Starfield, get some directors to go to Arkhane and have them make Fallout 5 or Elder Scrolls. Stop making these B games no one wants to play.

Arkane was great when it was doing Arx Fatalis, Dark messiah of might and magic, Dishonored 1 ,Bioshock 2 and Prey, they decided to go down the multiplayer rabit hole which is not their wheelhouse. They are divergent gameplay guys. They are great at it. Honestly I would love for them to go back to steampunk era in a single player rpg. They just need to be focused and knock some sense into thier lead designer who worships the woke cult.

As for Avalanche, they aren't part of Bethesda. They make just cause rage2 and mad max, which is an independent studio/publisher. Bethesda just hired them to do rage2, but they aren't owned by them. Thankfully.

 

[Kiraly]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

I'm sure there will be plenty of familiar avatars in every thread screaming why the game is terrible judging by the previous preview threads for it.

 

[Pelta88]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

I think the conversation around Starfield is weird. What XBOX showed led to a lot of negative vids that went viral. The highest viewed gameplay trailer has 3.4 million views In 4 months... In an industry where trailers can break 10 million views in a week.

But people sidestep how bad the game looked and how gamers were mostly dismissive of it. I'm not saying Starfield is going to be a bad game. I'm just not into revisionist history of what was shown.

More importantly, gamers are putting way too much weight on this single ip. They're hyping it up to be not just genre defining, but a game that has to carry an entire platform and an accompanying service on it's back. And I think that weight of expectation might collapse what should be a great game.

 

[solidus12]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

How dare you; Starfield will be the ultimate game.

 

[Banjo64]

Why though, get a pc and/or steam deck and you have all the xbox games right there.

Valid point. It’s actually something I have considered, I posted this in the Deck OT this week;

I get tempted at times to sell my PS5 and Series S and buy one of these to go alongside my Switch Oled. I’ve got a 1080p monitor I could dock this on. Only thing that worries me is if a gen 2 is going to be released within the next 24 months.

I think my main issue is that the Series S will last the duration of the current generation. The Deck targeting 720p is comparatively weaker than the Series S targeting 1080p.



Also, will the battery/joy sticks last?

What I do. Then have a switch and ps5. That is the trifecta of all 3. Before my ps5 was purchased I was using the steam link to play Elden Ring on my living room TV. Wasn't as good as native but worked for my needs at the time.

I’m not gunna lie, the PS5 is the odd man out for me if I buy a Deck. I wait for most Sony games to go on sale anyway (sub £30 mark). Waiting for them to hit Steam wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.

I think in the next couple of years if Valve were to announce a gen 2 Deck with an OLED screen, better battery life and a bit less fuggliness I’d make the swap over no hesitation. Having Xbox games, PS and RTS games in one place and it’s a hybrid? Unbelievable.

As to a normal PC, bought my lad a Ryzen 5 3600 / RX 6600 8GB for 1080p gaming last year and whilst it’s great, it’s not for me. I’ve done PC based work for practically the last 10 years, traditional PCs just aren’t for me in my personal life.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

I’m a Xbox fan, not impressed by the game from what’s been shown. Redfall too.

 

[Dick Jones]

#CreativeChatter

2 of these 3 need the pink slip. We all know who the 2 are

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

Ok. But maybe a nice chunk will subscribe to game pass at one point.

It's clear that MS has bad management for gaming companies. We saw it with Rare who barely produced anything close to grand since they were bought. Bungie left. etc. Yes, they have some studios that are capable but they aren't able to create that big IP and pull.

I don't know why that's happening, I think it's prob mostly because the American way of doing thing when you surround yourself with Yes-Men and people are afraid to voice out different opinions and "pick their battles". There's no leader with a true vision. It's clear that Sony has that as all their games have a similar feel, like they came from the same cinematic universe. It's clear Nintendo has that, as their games focus on gameplay innovation and differentiation. I don't know what MS vision for gaming besides a big foot at the door to their cloud services at one point, and that's really a corporate vision not a gaming one.

I doubt the new acquisitions will turn this around, as throwing money at a problem hasn't solved it so far.

So Nintendo is focussing and gameplay innovation and differentation?
How do you explaine then milking the mario games, the mario cart games, the Zelda and the pikmin games and so on till Kingdom comes?
Come on...

 

[Mister Wolf]

Hopefully Redfall turns out to be a good game. I'm not a big fan of looter-shooters like Borderlands.

 

[Balducci30]

I don’t understand the defense of this, I own an xbox series x and I love it. But it’s not acceptable to go a full calendar year without a single AAA exclusive. It’s just not. No matter how you spin it. Sony has at least released two anticipated AAA exclusives per year - Microsoft has more money and more man power. It’s pretty ridiculous

 

[MasterCornholio]

I don’t understand the defense of this, I own an xbox series x and I love it. But it’s not acceptable to go a full calendar year without a single AAA exclusive. It’s just not. No matter how you spin it. Sony has at least released two anticipated AAA exclusives per year - Microsoft has more money and more man power. It’s pretty ridiculous

Just thinking about next year for Sony. Is Spider-man 2 the only AAA 1st party game that Sony has?

 

[ADiTAR]

So Nintendo is focussing and gameplay innovation and differentation?
How do you explaine then milking the mario games, the mario cart games, the Zelda and the pikmin games and so on till Kingdom comes?
Come on...

Milking of Mario games? There was one Mario game for the entire Switch generation, and it was extremely innovative in its gameplay and turn things on its head with the cap being part of your move set. They also added Bowser's Fury to a port which was an amazing open world platformer. Both are innovative in their Mario experiences.

I think BotW was innovative for the series and effected many open world game design that came after it. You can innovate in your own franchise, something neither Sony or MS do.

Of course unlike MS, Nintendo knows it needs to spread their IPs and create ports, B and C tier games to sustain their platform. That's something MS would have loved to have this constant stream of games that come out, not everything needs to be AAAA. Their games in general are different from what you're able to find on Xbox or PS.

 

[Pop]

Wonder how the mood swings around here when Starfield comes out and is not nearly as big a hit as Xbox fans fantasize.

Well if Microsoft goes off of engagement, I have no doubt the game will be huge. I believe sales won't be though. You could play the game for a dollar if someone really wanted to.

 

[GymWolf]

Starfield looks amazing.

Redfall on the other hand, good god. I am convinced it is going to be the next Deathloop. MS will try to pull a Sony and shove this game down our throat but at the end of the day it will be forgotten like deathloop which didnt even hit top 20 on NPD last year despite all those State of Plays.

Arkhane needs to become a support studio. I dont know who these games are for, but clearly no one cares. And by no one, i mean niche. I am sure there are a few hundred thousand prey and dishonored fans out there. Just do support work for real studios like ID Software, Bethesda and Avalanche. If Bethesda is too busy with Starfield, get some directors to go to Arkhane and have them make Fallout 5 or Elder Scrolls. Stop making these B games no one wants to play.

Jesus dude, you like trash like anthem and ac unity but you don't understand why people like the immersive sims genre that basically only arkane does?

Deathloop was a misfire but these dudes didn't missed to make great (incredible if you like good level design) games since what? dark messiah? arx fatalis?

Deathloop still had an interesting game format and great level design, it was just a 7 instead of their usual 9.

I like open world looter shooter and if redfall has their usual level design in open world scale i'm gonna like that game a lot.

It's just the graphic that looks meh.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

He games quite a bit

Have played PUBG and Warzone with him a few times and he does actually love gaming

He sucks at shooters but does play

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Starfield's gonna be a juggernaut.

Not long now bro.

Going to be a good one

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

But you don't have to be a gamer to appeal to your audience.

Just saying.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

But you don't have to be a gamer to appeal to your audience.

Just saying.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Its almost like hes here reading gaf with those quotes in the OP.

 

[PharaoTutAnchAmun]

The only thing i want from phil is to give big budgets to his teams, starfield still looks like your average bethesda game and redfall still looks like your average arkane game.

I was expecting for these team to do a sony jump in production values but it doesn't look like that.

It was the main reason why i was happy that M bought all these studios, to give them a big ass budget.

And you realy think that MS give them all a big ass budget and then put all does games on Gamepas? Most of them day one?

 

[GymWolf]

And you realy think that MS give them all a big ass budget and then put all does games on Gamepas? Most of them day one?

I think that what i say was partially wrong because both redfall and starfield started development way before being acquired by M, so the core engine and shit was already made.

At best i can hope they are gonna be as bug free as they can possibly be, with M money, hiring 3480956406858069864056805860958 more betatesters should not be a fucking problem.

About what you say, i have no idea how phil decide the budget, when the first gameplay for fable, avowed etc. are gonna be out we are gonna judge with our eyes how big the budget is.

 

[Fredrik]

I have PS5 but I like this guy. I see a gamer not a suit speaking.

Yeah same here, he actually seems to be a gamer for real, and I guarantee that his most wanted game this year is Ragnarök, not Pentiment. I bet he’s just as disappointed as most of us at Microsoft’s current 1st party output. But what can he do about it? Telling their studios to release unfinished and/or badly polished games isn’t going to make things better.

As for the discussion here, it’s possible to be critical at Microsoft’s lackluster 1st party output without being an obvious fanboy. People should try to not push an agenda in every single post, goes for both sides. Try to just be a gamer sometimes.

 

[TheGecko]

 

[Dr. Suchong]

#CreativeChatter

What a bunch of Mooks

 

[SlimySnake]

Jesus dude, you like trash like anthem and ac unity but you don't understand why people like the immersive sims genre that basically only arkane does?

Deathloop was a misfire but these dudes didn't missed to make great (incredible if you like good level design) games since what? dark messiah? arx fatalis?

Deathloop still had an interesting game format and great level design, it was just a 7 instead of their usual 9.

I like open world looter shooter and if redfall has their usual level design in open world scale i'm gonna like that game a lot.

It's just the graphic that looks meh.

Anthem and AC are third party. If they were made by Sony, i would judge them more harshly. Its clear EA rushed out Anthem and it pretty much had no shot. Same thing with AC.

I just have higher standards for first party titles. Arkhane simply cant afford to release a game that looks like Redfall. I dont really mind games that do something different, but like Deathloop, Redfall isnt doing anything too different, is it? If you are making a generic zombie shooter then at least try to make it look good.

 

[remember_spinal]

2060

Microsoft boss Bill Spectre apologizes for lack of Xbox content during the Xbox Series Quadruple X generation

Soon

 

[MasterCornholio]

Really interested in seeing how they are going to do this. I'm not expecting it to be openworld but it can be more open than your typical single player title.

 

[Phil_the_goat]

Redfall isn’t going to cut it, the game is not AAA quality we expect.

Lol
Graphic whores are the worst

 

[Thief1987]

2060

Microsoft boss Bill Spectre apologizes for lack of Xbox content during the Xbox Series Quadruple X generation

But he is excited by their 2061's line-up and thinks it's biggest ever.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

They really just punted an entire year. Next year they have Forza, Starfield, Redfall… but what else?

I wonder what InXile is doing next. Wasteland 3 was sick.

A patch for wasteland 3 woulda been nice

 

[oldergamer]

Literally every game announced this gen had at least one delay.

100% true. Saying they are the only ones affected is pretty short sighted