He joined Level Ex this past September. Shame Ubisoft forced him out. Loved For Honor and was hoping for a sequel.
What happened there? Did he get forced out of Ubisoft this year because of the sexual assault stuff?
No. Nothing like that. He left in July 2017 for ArenaNet but most speculated that he was forced out due to creative differences for his game For Honor. At least that’s what I remember reading at the time because I was pissed since I liked For Honor and was hoping for a sequel which is most likely not going to happen sadly.
1 Like
No, well before that. There’s actually was a documentary on Netflix that showed the entire making of For Honor, including his exit. It was very candid. It’s called “Playing Hard” and I’d highly recommend it, although I don’t know where to see it now.
2 Likes
Disagree. It takes way too long to set up a new studio and have them deliver a game. If you can find studios that are already set up but struggling financially or need the backing of a strong publisher it makes a lot of sense for XGS to buy. Game Pass will need a steady flow of new and varied content. Building a bunch of new studios would take way too long to deliver a quality product. After the studio is finally set up it will probably take them until their 2nd or 3rd game before they are running as a well oiled machine that can deliver in a timely fashion.
FYI, XGS has expanded each and every studio they have bought so they are creating new jobs. Some studios have even added more teams. T
12 Likes
I think that Xbox will release 4-5 big games every year starting in 2022. People here talk about how good Sony’s 2020 has been with multiple games (Ghost of Tsushima, TLOU2, Astro’s Playroom, Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls) but the reality is that this year is the exception, not the rule because 2020 has been a new launch year.
In 2019 they launched 2 big games: Days Gone and Death Stranding.
In 2018 they launched three big games: God of War, Spider-Man and Detroit Become Human.
In 2017 they launched two big games: Horizon and Uncharted The Lost Legacy.
In 2016 they launched only one big game, Uncharted 4.
In 2015 they launched only two big games, Bloodborne and Until Dawn.
In 2014 they launched Driveclub (which was later cancelled) and Infamous Second Son.
I’m not mocking Sony or anything (lol), what I’m saying is that, on average, this gen, with 12 studios, they have launched 2-3 big games every year, Xbox will probably be able to launch around 4-5 big games every year considering they have almost double the amount of studios Sony has.
So in 2021 we have Halo Infinite, Microsoft Flight Simulator and probably Starfield in terms of big games. Then 2022 could go like this:
-
Everwild
-
Forza Motorsport
-
Forza Horizon 5
-
Gears 6
-
Wolfenstein 3
-
Arkane Austin’s new IP
And then 2023 could look something like this:
-
Fable
-
Avowed
-
Perfect Dark
-
Doom 3
If Microsoft can have a big game every 3 or 4 months - and I think they can with the studios they have right now - , I think that would be enough to have a robust Game Pass growth, so, if anything, I think that they should acquire Asobo and maybe another studio but not much else right now.
4 Likes
You’re missing Ratchet & Clank for 2016, The Order 1886 for 2015, Nioh for 2017 and Nioh 2 in 2020 as Sony did publish the game in North America. Doesn’t include AA/Indies that they published as well.
I see 2021 being slow for the first half with mostly Indies/AA timed console exclusives and multi-platform games filling it out with the second half being much stronger with Flight Simulator in August, Forza Horizon 5 in September and Halo Infinite in November.
I see 2022 being Starfield, Wolfenstein III (had it previously as 2021), Hellblade 2 and Forza Motorsport.
2 Likes
To be fair they have horizon forbidden west, ratchet and clank, gran turisimo 7, returnal, and god of war ragnorok this year. With Ryan in charge it seems studios won’t get the time they once did to make games.
I think XGS needs a couple of teams that will simply revive older IP. If they had 3 teams they could go through XGS’s IP’s and make sequels to a ton of games. Games like Crimson Skies, Blood Wake, Kung Fu Chaos, Ninja Blade, Otogi, Banjo, Conker, Jetforce Gemini etc.
4 Likes
I know what their trailer said, but God of War ain’t making it this year.
4 Likes
Yeah I really think so too but it shows Sony is probably planning on 4-5 big games a year from last year onward I think.
2 Likes
I see both Horizon II: Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok releasing in 2022 along with Spider Man 2.
1 Like
Since you were talking about sleeping Xbox IP… Am I the only one who think Ryse can be a hit franchise ?
I don’t think Viva Pinata, Crimson Skies or Conker should return in 2021 or beyond. But Ryse have a really good potential imo
And by the way, Microsoft should buy Crytek to have a new great european studio and a new great engine, even for 500 millions, I think Crytek is a good deal
2 Likes
You don’t want those 3, but you want Ryse? That’s certainly a unique viewpoint…
1 Like
Oh man idk I’m more confident in horizon than God of war in terms of actually releasing but we’ll see
yeah, I think for the next generation, Ryse have more potential than those IP
I strongly disagree and I think Animal Crossing proves that, in regards to VP. There is no dormant IP in all of gaming with more upside. It’s crazy to think that wouldn’t be a phenomenon, it absolutely would.
And Ryse is fine. But not spectacular, so not worth the headache of wrestling it away from someone else. So on that list, Ryse is definitely #4.
I agree completely. Would much rather see Ryse 2 which has so much potential over all the other older games and IP’s. However, I would not mind ShadowRun coming back like the recent PC game or the SNES game. Only other older IP would be Jet Force Gemini as a Ratchet & Clank clone.
I’m more confident in Horizon 2 releasing over God of War this year but in general, I see both as 2022. My guess is Horizon 2 gets a Fall release date and then gets delayed to early 2022. Except for launch or Driveclub/Gran Turismo Sport, they stay out of the AAA October/November/December window. Early September is the most likely but I don’t see it happening. Sony normally lets the third party companies carry the console and since 2021 could be very well packed, there’s really no reason for them to release one of their top tier titles in that time frame.
Returnal is set for March, Ratchet will probably be June and I see Gran Turismo 7 in Sept/Oct as their major holiday title which will do massive numbers in Europe.
I’m still curious to see what the hell Playful Corp. is working on. I know Klobrille hinted that they were working on a Rare game, but it wasn’t the no. 1 title you’d think of.
I’m still under the impression that they are (or were) working on Viva Pinata.
With the amount of layoffs/downsizing they’ve done, I don’t expect them to make something bigger in scale (like Banjo, Killer Instinct, Kameo).
So many things Global Publishing and the other studios could be working on with external partners… so many things…
2 Likes