Hot take: Big, established, mainsteam IPs are key to Game Pass and Halo, TES, Fallout and Minecraft are underused

Stefrah · October 23, 2021, 10:24am

power:

…in the acquisition thread: Set The Coalition loose on a new IP (beyond their smaller scoped project). Maybe this is a controversial take, but I find Gears too big to shelve and too small to shackle The Coalition to it. Go tap People Can Fly, for example, to work on the franchise, maybe on a spin-off in a second-party capacity at first. You now get a fresh perspective on an older property which can still be leveraged for Game Pass as a brand name while positioning your premier studio to develop more IP for Game Pass. I’d be interested to see what this studio with established Gears experience could do off the back of Outriders (powers, loot) in something like a Hivebusters continuation/evolution. They’re also in a pickle after that weird deal with Square, so it seems like a viable opportunity.

Or keep growing the Coalition so that they can become a two game studio, which seems to be what they are doing.

A lot of people joined the Coalition because they love Gears and wanted to work on it, and I think there are indications in Gears 5 and Hivebusters of their ideas to freshen up the formula.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t do something else as well. They are already reportedly working on a smaller IP alongside Gears, so the next step is to a full AAA game alongside Gears.

So yes to something new, but yes to Gears too.

Same goes for all their studios really. Acquisitions aren’t the only way to get more games. Growing existing studios into two game operations is equally viable.

AllianceOfficer · October 24, 2021, 3:05pm

Absolutely, growing studios is a must. Imagine we get to a point where Xbox has simultaneous AAA game production capability like the below:

Bethesda - 3 Games
Obsidian - 3 Games (yeah I know they're doing multiple small stuff)
ID - 2 Games
The Coalition - 2 Games
inXile - 2 Games
Playground - 3 Games
Rare - 3 Games
Arkane - 4 Games
Turn 10 - 2 Games
Worlds Edge - 2 Games

These are the studios I’d really try to expand and have make additional AAA games. There are other Xbox studios sure but if they could just get these to the point they have this type of production capability then the amount of top notch content they could output would be unmatched. It would also likely give the studios a bit more room with less risk to try out some new stuff. The release calendar would be epic!

anon74828371 · October 25, 2021, 11:04pm

Stefrah:

…s in 20 years, 14 if count mobile and the arcade thing. Elder Scrolls 6 is in early production, it’s not going anywhere. But they also need to keep looking for what the next well-loved IP is going to be. If anything, the criticism of Xbox in the past has been too great an emphasis on milking just a few big brands and not trying enough new – the classic ‘all Xbox has is Halo, Gears, Forza and Fable’ meme, and the fragility of this strategy was laid bare when Fable fell off the rails and it became ‘all Xbox has is Halo, Gears and Forza’. I am delighted to see the modern Xbox under Spencer pushing to find new iconic brands and trying new things. The reason Fallout is not being leveraged right now is that BGS is making Starfield, and a decade from now that could be a huge brand in its own right.

Oh I’m not asking Xbox to trade “Halo, Gears, Forza” to “Halo, Fallout, TES, Minecraft (and Forza)”. That would be terrible. I’m glad that there are a lot of new IPs in the works (and that these all look exciting).

Just saying that they need more teams, more studios, more partnerships so they can do more with their most popular IPs.

Do we know what size is The Molasse Flood ? Seems like they will work on The Witcher but I have no idea it’s would be a small, medium or AAA game.

I updated my post, should be better now