This could be a genuis move by P3 - had they been under the Xbox banner P3 may have been expected to keep them on COD, but by letting them go independent while getting their games into gamepass, nothing changes for us as Xbox gamers but P3 isn’t forced to keep them on COD.
The only thing people should really know is that Crash and other IPs are still with Xbox. The rest you can discuss and speculate.
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the xbox method is much healthier than many other groups who would not have let the studio become independent but would have reassigned them to other positions. It makes me think of Bungie who must regret having been bought by playstation , who finds himself stuck and would have liked to become independent again.
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i highly doubt anybody would even try to suggest option b) in the current landscape where thousands of game devs lost their job, flooded the job market and where investor money ran dry.
Watch this turn into another Double Helix/Killer Instinct situation where T4B releases a great game under XGP and then someone else buys T4B and Xbox is stuck with well known family friendly IP’s like Spyro and Crash with no developer to make them. Sounds like Xbox alright. lol
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Maybe this happens, maybe not. Could we be a bit more optimistic for once?
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They clearly have the confidence that as a team they could be financially stable on their own - it wouldn’t matter if they did it as “Toys for Bob” or simply left and formed a new studio. At least doing it this way, everyone involved appears to have maintained a good working relationship.
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People here want to know the reason for it and that’s fine. Be aware though, one of our comments will age like milk.
But this here is a completely different situation than simply leaving and forming a new studio. They have work with Xbox scheduled so there is money involved. TfB have to pay their employees wages at the end of every monthy now with their own money (iirc 50 people at least and most of them in the Bay Area), thats 0.5 million bucks give or take. If they simply form a new studio, where do they get the money from in the current market situation? Every bank will laugh them out of the building, confidence or not.
Is is true that family games don’t make the same type of revenue as something like a Call of Duty but there is currently no audience for it on Xbox.
If you start building a audience there’s definitely money in it.
Games like Mario Kart 8, Animal Crossings, Super Smash Bros, Zelda BoTW, Super Mario Odyssey and Pokémon have all sold over 20 million copies.
I’m not saying it will be overnight but you have to start somewhere (which does not include letting T4B go IMO).
This.
If you keep offering the same types of games you can’t expect a subscription to grow.
To use the same analogy I used above if Netflix only offered Rom-Coms you would not attract the Action / Horror fans to your subscription, no matter how many places you put Netflix!
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I get this fear and I kinda have it with Crystal Dynamics for Perfect Dark, but I think before that was them not being smart and and not putting some security measures in contract there. I’d think that now they do have better insurances for long-term interest in the IPs & studios they partner with.
I assume they’ll continue to work with Microsoft because Microsoft owns the IPs. It’s very hard to create a new IP or spiritual successor because the names are not known. Just look at Yooka Laylee and even something like bloodstained. Those games were solid for the most part, but I don’t think people lined up to buy them, so there’s lots of risk. Anyway, I think they’ll continue to work with Microsoft, so we should be fine.
I wonder if this move allows Microsoft not to surrender games to Ubisoft for cloud
We can always be optimistic but when we have previous examples of similar situations not going well for Xbox plus having a lot of possible external factors/outcomes at play here that Xbox can’t control (aka a buyout) we are starting to sound naive IMO. Xbox publishing with 3rd party studios can be produce some great results but are also unpredictable business relationships.
It’s funny because for years now we’ve seen many people in here saying over and over how Xbox should buy studios like Asobo, Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal but now with a very talented studio like T4B (who they actually owned) it’s just fine to work with a 3rd party studio and are sure that everything will turn out fine and dandy. There is a reason why platform holders buy studios/try to keep talent, IP’s are cool and all but without talent things can get pretty tricky (look at KI).
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I thought of a new speculative angle…
Imagine that Xbox doesn’t want any hint of descent in the acquired employees. If you are not on board with the Xbox plan you are a risk. The regulators that want ammo to use against Microsoft would salivate at the prospect of testimonies from unhappy employees. Better to cut ties. Toys for Bob might’ve been seen as a liability if they were too independent minded. I think it’s possible Microsoft did an assessment of risk based on the employees feelings towards Microsoft and they failed the personality test. The fact that they even wanted to be independent in the first place is enough smoke for me to speculate this scenario.
Just a thought 
This was my immediate thought too.
Killer Instinct is basically dead now, hopefully the rumoured sequel will help revive it but there’s no good having the IP if you don’t have the talented studio to keep the IP alive and relevant.
T4B was one of the few things I was excited about for the ABK acquisition and now almost all this hope is diminished.
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It’s so dead, it received an update since…yesterday.
Sorry, but you made it too easy. I get it though, but time will tell on KI wise, especially since it has been receiving updates. As for family games, time will tell on where is that going for Xbox brand.
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Going independent but still want to work closely with Microsoft / activison …. Guys wtf is happening
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It’s likely because the industry has laid off thousands in recent history including a number of studio closures. This will be looked at as ‘at least it’s not that’ and people will look on the bright side.
What people were asking for with Asobo, CD, and Eidos isn’t really meaningful in today’s climate. If these were normal times in the industry I think the response from people would be different.
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But yeah I was talking about actual players, there’s literally 30 people playing it on Steam at the moment, whereas Street Fighter 6 has just shy of 29,000.
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I do want to be wary (for lack of a better word) that they say possible partnership. So nothing is set in stone yet.
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