Yeah, it’s getting harder to keep track of number of studios and number of dev teams, especially with how dev teams can be very agile and reassigned as needed.
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I think it’s pretty clear what he means below:
Hits including 2018’s God of War and 2020’s The Last of Us Part II are exclusive to PlayStation consoles, helping Sony sell some 114 million of the PS4. Rival Microsoft Corp. has taken the opposite approach, relying on a wide array of studios to feed its Netflix-like subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, which allows users to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to a variety of games.
He specifically talks about using exclusives to sell consoles versus using exclusives to sell a subscription. No where does he says anything about quality. You’re reading too much into this.
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I personally would be happy with 5 AAA+ games a year with 25 teams. But to say we have 4-8 AAA games a year currently is just literally a FALSE NARRATIVE. This is why this topic is hilarious, contradictory and discredited.
I never said they had that currently.
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It could also mean that microsoft are doing the opposite regarding spending 10s of millions on hits like god of war, TLOU2 etc. He is also making a distinction between Microsofts and sonys strategies, where microsoft have a “Netflix-like” approach and sony dont. Statements like that have a pretty wide array of possible implications. I think jason is mistaking business strategy with game portfolio strategy, from a portfolio point of view I dont think microsofts game portfolio is any more “Netflix-like” then sonys, the only difference being Microsoft have more studios.
But Microsoft’s current goal is to have big releases every 2 to 3 months, so that’s 4-6 already. That’s not a “false narrative” at all.
Problem with your assumption is that he’s not going to insinuate that MS isn’t spending 10s of millions on games because everyone knows they are, including Jason. Your view of his comment just doesn’t make sense. You’re not making a AAA game in today’s market without spending 10s of millions, or 100 million actually.
Jason knows this, as would any gamer who’s paid attention to budgets for the last 10 years.
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Cant say I agree unfortunately. I think its best we agree to disagree because I dont see this conversation going anywhere.
It’s fine to agree to disagree. However I don’t think we should be cooking up conspiracy theories about those in the industry. Feel free to complain about some false narrative being pushed time after time if it actually happens but this ain’t it.
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It does make me chuckle that people seem to think MS isn’t capable of making AAA games either because of Game Pass or just they can’t do it. I feel most of the complaints about Xbox games are not they’re bad quality but it’s just Forza, Halo and Gears. If you gave a different skin to these games and they were new IP people would be all over them.
Xbox can make A, AA, AAA games perfectly fine and they will do that now and in the future. Starfield alone is going to be their biggest new IP and we could see that this year. I can already see people say that doesn’t count because it’s Bethesda’s and MS just bought them lol and to those people I say I couldn’t give a shit how they get the games to us be it buying a studio for IP or making it, a game is a game.
Just because you think its a conspiracy theory does not make it one. Im sure many people in this thread can confirm its not a conspiracy theory.
One thing that I think it help change the narrative is Xbox gaining ground on Japan support, receiving some big important games.
Having big exclusive games from Japan such as Nier Automata, Disgaea 5, Persona 5, Nioh and quite a few others help immensely elevate the “Playstation has the best exclusives” narrative.
And removing 3rd party games from bolstering the PS lineup will help a lot on that comparison.
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Since when Disgaea 5 is a big game? I’d argue that none in the list is, Persona 5 and Nier Automata were certainly surprise hits, but nowhere near AAA budgeted titles (and they still all remain niche titles), the exceptions within series with not many multimillion sellers, if any.
However, I agree that MS must remove the de facto exclusives that exist without even official contracts, but only because Xbox didn’t even try until 2017.
The drought is painfully real when many Xbox fans scream with joy for another b tier years old port (Dragon Qurst Builders 2), not even a major name.
To claim that Jason is stating that MS isn’t willing to spend 10s of millions on 1st party titles is at least a misunderstanding of what he is saying. Gears 3 cost around $50 million to make on the 360. You don’t think development costs have risen significantly since then? You also don’t think that Jason, with all of his contacts, understands how much games cost today?
These are honest questions BTW.
I think he was meaning that Jason framed the sentence in a subtle way, in order to make it look like MS is funding only mediocre stuff to fill their subscription. It wouldn’t be the first time Schreier said something bad about Xbox just in spite of, I mean, if you read his review of Series X, you will find a collection of subtle Sony centered player considerations, many of which actually false, like the incredible number of PS5 exclusives at launch, lmao. Jason himself is one the major culprits of this false narrative, I fully agree with him.
I just meant in general. Disgaea 5 was a big talking point specially in the time it came (way before Gow and Spiderman hit), and at around the same time there was a plethora of japanese games not releasing on xbox.
I don’t see it and think people are seeing what they want to see. He doesn’t say, insinuate, or hint in any subtle way about the game’s quality. Unlike many people on the internet, many of these journalists don’t have a dog in this silly console war. Do they have preferences? Sure, everyone does but to go to the point of taking subtle jabs at a platform? Nah. Of the two, Sony and MS, he’s gone after Sony far more aggressively, but yeah let’s look for subtle reasons to believe he has some kind of agenda against Xbox, especially to the point of subtly taking jabs at a piece of plastic in articles? like people really have that much free time on their hands.
Jason wasn’t the only one to point to MS’ lack of exclusives at the Series X launch. Are you to tell me they are all biased and in on the same hate campaign? I think some of you need to take critiques towards Xbox a bit more openly, even though there is no criticism found in the quote in the OP. I guess my overall point is there really isn’t any kind of false narrative, at least not by journalists, and you guys need to stop paying attention to what fanboys on the internet are saying.
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I critique MS every day, I mean, you only have to go in the acquisition or the community thread. He has gone more after Sony only because he actually has contacts inside, but his stance and preferences are very clear, I didn’t say he is a console warrior, but like many of his collegues, has a Playstation filtered view of gaming as a whole.
You can have a preference or even a bias without it influencing your actions though. If he’s not a console warrior, then you’re only supporting what I’m saying.
I think the bigger problem is you think that many journalists have a “playstation filter”. That in itself can cause people to look for things that aren’t even there, much like in this instance.
Edit: Go ahead and show me a respected journalist pushing this narrative that’s been pushed in this thread.
Big talking point? From stupid list warriors, I didn’t even known the game before today and I follow the industry since the '90. It is a very niche japan style game, probably it is not even in the top 50 gets of an average xbox fan.