That “established studio” (Crystal Dynamics) will be next for the chopping block if they don’t get their act together and make a proper Tomb Raider game soon. So many of these legacy dev studios (if we can call them that) have been coasting on reputation and name alone for years and years.
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Yeah, CD has been bleeding money for years even before they were sold by SE. Tomb Raider has always been do or die for them.
It seems the structure The Initiative was set up with never worked. Having very experienced leads develop core concepts, stories and ideas and then getting them developed at an external studio just wasn’t feasible. It’s a shame, because I genuinely think the Perfect Dark IP has so much potential and I liked the trailer in 2024. Rough day for Rare fans.
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From Perfect Dark developer:
"This demo. It is actually in-engine. I was one of three level designers that worked on it. It worked best if you played it the way the person playing in the video plays it, but it still worked even if you didn’t hit the marks perfectly. The combat is “real” in that someone had to really do all that stuff in the video, but it’s set up to be played exactly that way and didn’t play well if you played it a different way.
I’m seeing big controversy over “THIS WHOLE THING WAS FAKE” and it’s annoying me, so I wanted to say something.
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But based on that quote it basically was fake. The game was clearly nowhere near finished and the demo was misleading.
I don’t know either way. Just going by what the dev said. It’s dead anyway.
Yeah, its a bit pedantic, but technically what was shown was “real” in that it was in engine and controlled by a human being. But its “fake” as far it wasnt representative of an actual product. It was a currated selection of vertical slices intended to make it look like there was a game.
Either one isnt good after 6 years or whatever.
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The quote says how a vertical slice of a game usually works.
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And thats fine. Its much less about the vertical slice and much more about…you know…that being all the have after half a decade +
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Controversial opinion, but this is an acceptable loss in my eyes. I was really looking forward to this game, but The Initiative has been having problems since Day 1. 6 years of development and god knows how much spent in funding, and all they had to show for it was one vertical slice of gameplay that we now know was basically just a playable cutscene. Xbox leadership deserve their share of the blame too, and need to be more hands on next time, but this was bound to happen. Thankfully The Initiative were a small studio and not a tentpole developer like Bethesda.
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How are Xbox developers even supposed to do their job well with these ridiculous profit requirements? This is insane, Amy Hood shouldn’t be in charge of this shit, put someone with some human feelings in there and also a bit of a brain, video games are risky whether they’re AA or AAA, you can’t expect revenue to be up every single year.
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Jez twitter feelings should be ignored 99% of the time.
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With all due respect, I don’t know why many insiders with strong credibility tend to be emotional. It’s the same for wrestling. I mean separate yourself from professional. But that’s just me.
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Yeah, Tom Warren even replied to the tweet saying he doesnt think its unrealistic.
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So basically the Halo 2 E3 demo again.
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The hard truth is that gaming, after cooling off from a growth spurt, doesn’t align well with Microsoft’s broader ambitions in cloud and AI on top of shareholder expectations.
If I were running those creative studios at Xbox I’d be focused on making sure they’re on a timeline, with strong leadership to steer each project, as well as getting those games on as many platforms as possible on day one.
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I think partially though that’s why Phil and his team ensure they’re always in alignment with the goals of MS.
Back before Covid, Microsoft was obsessed with subscriptions like Office 365, so Game Pass was an idea that MS would buy into and be more interested in the numbers than the profit margins while it built up.
Now it’s AI, they’re allowing AI into the Xbox stuff as much as possible for support etc and to maybe show devs using Copilot in Visual Studio etc so they’re supporting the wider goals and so able to get some leeway.
While there’s been layoffs and it seems the leeway is less now, I do think yes that with stronger oversight that seems to be happening now (so ensuring more games hit their release dates and budgets) along with it being one of Microsoft’s few consumer facing divisions it’s got a safe future despite what emotional “insiders” and Xbox haters say.
It’s very likely the hybrid Xbox and the work with the Windows team on the Ally are also to show alignment with the wider MS family, as it shows they’re open to competing storefronts in this age where the EU are cracking down and perhaps helps Windows team to take Steam on a bit more
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I also think factors like cost have been a huge hit to Xbox. Having so many projects in the works can be quite expensive. There was a report some time ago of Korean developers pitching for Blizzard IPs . Blizzard Reportedly Receiving New StarCraft Game Pitches From Well-Known Korean Developers I’m guessing Xbox might be reaching out more to Asian developers as development there is much cheaper, and they do seem to be the rising stars in the industry today. So, I won’t be surprised if any of this or PD resurfaces.
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Yep I remember when Sega became one of the biggest and most profitable names in gaming churning out loads of games every year.
Oh you didn’t mean that comparison? My bad…
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