The Big ol' Xbox 3rd Party Releases Discussion Thread (HiFi, SoT, Pentiment, Grounded) (Part 1)

I feel this gif is appropriate for this situation

That’s what I feel is going on at the outlets when asked.

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Basically asking them to do free charity work lol.

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The road map that Microsoft has for Xbox is excellent. I alone have 12 games on my list that are on their already announced road map. No argument here.

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Oh I know, I have played hundreds of hours of sea of thieves since launch, probably one of my most played games. I do think that even at launch though it deserves a much higher score. I got to pirate legend long before they made changes that made it much easier to do so, so to have put that much time into the game then means it was pretty good imo.

One of Rare’s best releases ever.

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Yeah, it’s nice that Microsoft Rare are finally getting their flowers. I think people dismissed what Rare has done with Microsoft because they’ve done a lot of great work. I think they def need to revive VIva Pinata because I feel it will be a hit today

Rare under MS has been very creative to be honest, a lot more than people give them credit for, which is sad as you always see people try to bring up the N64 Rare but since they were bought by MS, we got another Banjo, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, Perfect Dark, Kameo, Viva Pinata, Conker Remaster, Kinect Sports, and now Sea of Thieves and Everwild.

I totally agree that Viva Pinata could be huge. Would also be easy to make cross platform/mobile considering the type of game, and consumer products based on the Pinatas would be easy to sell as well I think, plus they could bring back the cartoon!

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Based take incoming, the Rare Kinect games were good.

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They sold mighty from what I remember , so there must have been something good in there for sure.

And unlike what a lot seem to think, apparently Rate wanted to work on Kinect even though the narrative was that they were apparently forced to work on Kinect.

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I was just thinking about the following in the last couple days:

Microsoft could have easily won the “console war” by adopting Sony’s strategy with their deep pockets back in 2017.

Meaning that they could have purchased exclusives from third parties by spending, say, $8 billion in making some of the biggest third party games as permanent first party exclusives. Everything from FF16 to Street Fighter 6 to Starfield. Maybe if their scouting was good, making Fortnite Battle Royale exclusive back in 2017 before anyone knew it would become a phenomenon. Maybe they could have made one CoD campaign an exclusive. With that amount they could have dabbled into making a Yakuza game an exclusive. Got the bid on Elden Ring. Make a Resident Evil remake an exclusive.

And it would have been “non-controversial” because it’s the same tactic Sony used for decades. Well, we’d still hear it but they couldn’t argue against the tactic.

And right now, the Xbox would essentially be switched with the PlayStation in terms of console market position. They could have spent 1/10 the money and they would have been far and away the market leader.

So MS, despite being aware of this, decided to go a completely different route. I think this is where we, myself included, have to temper our skepticism and consider that there’s so much more to this than we understand.

At the same time, we all have to admit that so much of this is counter-intuitive and it’s hard to see how this is going to pay off. This doesn’t seem like something Microsoft is willing to be open about.

So we’re seeing a strategy that we don’t understand and Microsoft is not doing much to make us understand. They don’t owe us any answers, of course, but if consumers are to invest in the brand then they at least want to understand that the brand has a future.

While I do see the logic in the idea that consoles have hit a plateau, I do think that fully buying into this idea could be a massive miscalculation much like how Xbox miscalculated the industry when they were conceiving the Xbox One. With the Wii and Kinect doing extremely well, things like Netflix taking off on the 360/PS3, with console sales plateauing generation over generation, and the rise of mobile gaming we saw MS take their eyes off the traditional console market and they lost out on billions and billions of dollars over the next 10 years (and beyond) as a result.

So I still hold the idea that they are jumping the gun here. They may be right about how things will pan out but I think they could have waited a bit longer. This 2024-2025 is absolutely stacked for the Xbox. Perhaps the best output with the best console product we’ve ever seen in the brand’s history. It’s the one time where even the most skeptical people will consider buying the console. And yet this is the time we’re seeing its games being announced on other platforms. And other big Xbox IP heavily rumoured to appear another consoles. Couldn’t this have waited till 2026, before the next generation?

So to me it feels like the most confusing time to be invested in the Xbox ecosystem. With the new forward compatibility team, it sounds like I shouldn’t hesitate on buying a brand new 3rd party title on the Xbox. But with no mid-gen refresh and the idea that the next Xbox won’t be a traditional console, do I really want to buy that brand new title on the Xbox?

Whether we agree or disagree with their plan, One thing that we can all agree on is that we’re in an era of uncertainty.

UncertainEra™ lol

I know I’m going to have a fantastic 2-3 years on the Xbox with Game Pass so don’t take this as any doom and glooming, but rather I posit that this could be the smartest move ever, one that benefits gamers, and we simply haven’t clued in and we don’t see it which leads to doubt in the brand.

The main issue is that Xbox has never been allowed to operate the same way that PlayStation does. They’re not allowed to do exclusives in the same way just flat out. They would be attacked non-stop.

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Rise of The Tomb Raider was a wild time.

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I would of got all the achievments if it didnt have the multiplayer ones

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Yeah they would have been held to a double standard but it’s something Xbox could have argued against with FF7R and SF5 being made exclusive. Plus, I’d argue that the gaming media would have no choice but to keep quiet about it after Xbox would become closer to competitive if not market leader

Legacy gaming media needs to be taken with a grain of salt by Xbox as well. Just do what’s good for Xbox gamers.

#TeamBeAPrick

My point is that I’m sure MS considered this. I’m sure they saw that as a possible path to pursue but decided against it because they saw something greater than “Xbox is the#1 console in terms of units sold”.

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Also no one is actually in the know what they are doing or trying to. The multiplat thing is just speculation at this point as they were developing SOT while battling Sony and the FTC in court and still wouldn’t commit under oath to some games going multiplat, we actually found they amended the deal to Indiana Jones and killed the RedFall port so it seems they were all in on exclusives and probably still are but with some caveats. In any case they know where the community is. I’m good as long as they bring the games but many are not and even though they are a few as people say it only takes a spark to set a fire and burn down an entire forest. I never thought DRM in 2013 could go that far so I can understand their reluctance to come out addressing the wild speculations. They will have to do some talking in June when they are barraged by fans. Right now, I don’t think they are going multiplatform but as Phil said maybe giving some IPs a second life when they are dead or IPs that have transcended the platforms to become platforms as I think once SOT hits mobile it would become its own platform. The storefronts idea sounds pretty cool and to me just makes me see consoles fading to become stores or subscription platforms.

I can’t remember if it was Kinect Sports, but their Jetski version could have gotten a sequel, that could have been their Wave Race. The water physics and game looked great.

In theory you could have even taken that concept, then turned it into a Mario Kart game, just with Xbox characters instead and the game would have been successful. Honestly tell me how a game with Master Chief or Banjo Kazooie on a Jet ski would have failed?

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jez and rand had a good question on xb2. At the showcase does xbox use the term exclusive. Im going with no

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Sounds like a good question if you’re looking for ways to make the show less enjoyable lol

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Lmao, of fucking course they’re going to refer to everything as exclusive. No major game is getting ported in less than like 2 years anyway

I can see Microsoft either saying nothing in regards to exclusivity or labeling them all as launch console exclusives which is basically timed exclusivity.

Even if it was an exclusive for only 6 months they can simply call it “exclusive” as even temporary exclusives for all major platforms are simply referred to as exclusives.

So my answer is a yes with high degree of certainty.