Microsoft was interested in a Vanquish 2?!? That’s my fav third-person shooter ever. I’d be absurdly happy if it were to get a sequel. Unfortunately, Platinum has too much on their plate ATM…
2 Likes
It was a rumor, nothing more than that. Although, it does make me curious since Brad Sams was pretty confident about Xbox approaching Platinum about an acquisition a while ago…
Who knows. Maybe something down the line will happen as either a partnership or something more.
1 Like
Right now MS needs to fix their relationship with Platinum to even get their multiplats. They skipped Xbox with W101 remaster, that shmup they announced last month, Babylon’s Fall (possibly a Square Enix decision though), and overall seem to treat the platform very coldly ever since Scalebound.
1 Like
I honestly wouldn’t look too much into it yet. They’ve just started self publishing and are probably thinking Xbox would be their least successful platform by far.
Their other projects (Bayonetta 3, Astral Chain, Babylon’s Fall AD, and NieR: Automata) have all been through other companies, only one of which has come to Xbox. Babylon’s Fall AD is probably a timed exclusive like NieR: Automata was.
I think it’s too early to jump to assumptions about their intentions with Xbox just as of yet. Wouldn’t be surprised to see their games come to Game Pass either.
Would not be surprised to see Microsoft/Xbox visit them again over the next couple of years.
hmmmm if these continues, then Phil might need to knock on their doors if they are selling @peter42O
4 Likes
It’s more Platinum’s loss than MS’, considering their self-published projects are indies which didn’t set the world on fire (at all) and all their major projects not funded by Nintendo, sooner more than later land on Xbox because the publisher will demand it.
If they will go on with this behaviour, we’ll ultimately know that they are petty, there are some devs in the industry who don’t act as professionals, just look at their twitter (and Kamiya is not alone).
In EU the game costs almost 100 USD, what a surprise, lmao.
1 Like
perhaps Returnal will be successful enough that it’ll all be fine, as a fan of Housemarque I certainly hope that’s the case, but I honestly think if Returnal is a bomb (that data certainly doesn’t paint a great picture, though obviously we’ll need to see digital sales), I expect Sony to end their relationship with Housemarque.
A shame because honestly, it wasn’t a year ago that I was hopeful that Sony would buy them just for the sake of being able to continue to do their thing. After that bloomberg article I’m not so sure anymore, and I certainly don’t think Sony will buy them, if returnal doesn’t prove fruitful.
Housemarque post returnal is a prime dev for MS to work with through XGS, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if that’s what happens.
2 Likes
Imo with a reasonable price for a clearly not full fledged AAA project, like 50$/€, the game would have fared much better. 70$/80€ is too much, even in my country, a PS land, there are countless articles and videos by the community asking if the price is right. I understand Sony wants to position its games as “premium”, but Returnal is no God of War or Spiderman, it is a risky gamble.
Platinum hasn’t made a truly good third party game since Metal Gear Rising. Right now, Xbox is not missing much from them.
1 Like
Also, when someone really plays Xbox like a fool with the investment that Xbox made, how much should they trust Platinum.
Miles on this week’s podcast was very clear when he said that Platinum invested the Xbox money in other projects, and did not have much to show, but instead went to Xbox to ask for more money and more time.
But - would you - if given a choice - go after a proper roguelike dev, or Housemarque?
Housemarque’s strong points are arcade action, and the game feels that way. They tried to go into roguelike where you need heavy investment into replayability. The true masters are Supergiant, Motion Twins (Dead Cells) or the Soulslke experts - From Software.
Platinum is not what it used to be in general. Babylon’s Fall looks like an indie game compared to how Metal Gear Rising looked VS the rest of the industry. Astral Chain was also far from a masterpiece even if it was generally enjoyable.
1 Like
I agree on everything bar the last thing: I don’t think Platinum or anyone else can fool MS with their money, they simply couldn’t deliver on their promises and missed every possible deadline, but spending MS money in other projects? Naah, Platinum wouldn’t exist anymore if this was the case.
Just being late and ensuring other projects continue is a clear sign that most clients in business understand. All you can do is act on the symptoms only – the symptoms being: late for delivery, and increased costs.
A lot of the industry works on trust, and it does not behoove Xbox to file cases or act aggressively against companies that they might want a future relationship with. So, usually just forfeiting the upfront cost seems beneficial for them to continue as they were, and not have a collateral effect on relationships everywhere else.
I agree that Platinum wasn’t really fair to MS with their management of the project (as you said, shipping 4-5 games in the meanwhile was meh), but, I repeat, no one can fool MS or any entity that big with their money, the consequences would have been catastrophic for them and no one outside forum users would have raised a finger to halt MS lawyers. XD
They are simply not capable of handling a full fledged AAA project (least of all a open world with online elements), the proof is history itself, considering they never delivered one since the studio was funded.
Do you have the timestamp when Miles said this? I didn’t watch all the podcast and I missed it.
Maybe, ‘fooling’ is a hard word. Does ‘playing hooky’ work? 
You are absolutely right on the part that if MS decides to take action, it would have been catastrophic for Platinum.
My point is that soft tactics play a role in a country like Japan. They may not want involve their lawyers and deal with a hard hand for small companies like Platinum and give bad optics of their relationships with Japanese devs. They will do this with the other juggernauts like Amazon and Google.
Maybe, maybe not, frankly I don’t see MS sit idly with their money spent on Activision or Square Enix games, but I can be wrong. Also who could have blamed them in the professionals sphere?
I agree they were a bad partner, imo this was the major reason behind MS slowness in funding another project from there, aside from Kokjima rumours, 4 years have passed and no Xbox Japan-funded games has been announced, a (bad) record for Xbox, they have always had something from that land in exclusive capacity and it’s the major hole in their line-up and also in the Phil strategy, it’s really strange not having a single freaking exclusive from Japan since D4, lmao.
Just a sidepoint: This is exactly why you need a Japanese publisher. The amount of soft power that it bestows is amazing. You as Xbox just delegate that accountability of working with Japanese devs to this Japanese publisher.
Besides, of course, having a lot of IPs into Gamepass.
2 Likes
Yeah, moreover some publishers are not really that trustworthy (cough Square Enix cough, it’s no coincidence that MS contracts are not like the Sony-Capcom one, they have been burned many times by japanese publishers, like the PS3 ports of Xbox 360 exclusives, which also burned trust in japanese customers), perhaps owning one could solve all the problems in one single sword thrust.
1 Like
Seeing what Platinum has done with Scalebound, I don’t expect Phil to take another step towards them