It’s barely related. We could also be talking about how new hires are “acquiring talent” too, but I’d rather that stay in the XGS thread.
I think we all understand the fine line here. If you guys wanna talk timed exclusives, I’d recommend making a thread.
Well, I also said myself that’s OT here, but nobody listened to me. Some mod will make another green post sooner or later. XD
We do need a topic that would encompass everything at once. Because nothing happens in vacuum.
Jokes aside, Todd never liked much Sony, he publicly shamed them for mods with Fallout 4 and for no cross-play for Fallout 76. It’s one of the rare people in the industry with enough clout, high position (and money, lol) who can dare to say anything about Sony. It’s no coincidence he didn’t make any words gymnastics like Pete Hines (who has to considering his position) for the exclusivity deal with upcoming Bethesda games. XD
What makes me wonder is why Deathloop and Ghostwire were Sony exclusives, it should always have been Xbox, did the management have some envy because of something? Like the InXile and Obsidian acquisitions? Or they asked too much?
I would assume it’s like others have said. Xbox is more interested in acquiring IP and studios. Timed deals are more so relegated to ID@Xbox or potentially slightly higher expenses deals, including GP day one releases.
Xbox is making long term plays, Sony is making fewer of those while doing some timed plays that will only gain them some movement for the short term.
I would love to read a book about the intricacies of the Zenimax deal….
Difference in strategy. Sony went to every publisher with bags of cash to go hard early on. MS spent their money on acquisitions. The latter makes more sense when you need content long term for a subscription service.
With Bethesda, it was literally why buy timed exclusivity when you can buy the entire publisher lol.
The real thing imo is why Zenimax turned its back to MS after 20 years of solid relationships (even friendship) for a quick buck, then you read the post about Altman demise (RIP) and you can clearly see the great relationship existing and no, it’s not always a matter of money, otherwise MS would win every deal every time. I would like to read a full story about the whole ordeal in the future, those two timed deals are really inexplicable.
I think the reality is Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo will likely be commercial failures and the deals they accepted help minimize the risk. Zenimax was on the market for a reason.
I still don’t get why going with Sony, they NEVER did before.
Sony went to every publisher with cash saying “what do you have”. At least according to insiders.
Anyway this is super OT, so let’s stop lol.
I said it myself three times, but nobody listen to non-mods, lol.
Have Arkane games ever been big sellers?
Sonys money was probably a godsend to them.
I don’t think its that malicious. Publishers probably go to both Sony and Microsoft with their entire slate of games and say hey are you interested in doing the marketing for any of these games and Sony said yes to Deathloop and Ghostwire because they filled a gap in that their first party wasn’t. From either a release window perspective or genre perspective.
Going back to IT, anyone think there will be something this year or now it’s not the time anymore, considering that some time from now they should start to market well their fall games (and we know good marketing is not a given for Xbox), so acquisitions could steal the thunder away from actual games?
Opening this thread to see it talking about Moneyhats again…
I don’t think Microsoft will get a new studio until sometime next year.
I’d like to see them get smaller indies, put them under the indie publisher and use them as somewhere they can spot talent and move them onto bigger studios… then backfill the indies with new talent hires, fresh into to the industry.
Yeah, won’t reply too much. As my tiredness of zombie games and “the color brown” as an art style gets me banned for “negativity”. People are a bit touchy about a color we cannot even see and is approximated by our brain.
Sigh, I need Ristar, Daytona or Arcade games with Blue skies so bad by now. I mean, that earlier people are saying “oh we get them via Gamepass deals”, shows just how little people know about what people like me actually want and like.
I think the current ID@Xbox program is good enough for indie relationships, there is a slew of indies coming to the platform, day one on GP and it’s actually the source of most new japanese series on Xbox recently in comparison with reluctant big publishers. XD