God of War Ragnarok is coming soon and the Xbox fan anxiety and insecurity kicking in maybe? 
I’d like to see them invest internally more to build a better support structure for existing (and future) studios but there is only so much this can actually bring in tangible output for Xbox. Sure, it could help support live service titles and get more Activision studios back to work but throwing people at the average project isn’t suddenly going to make them go much faster - and equally doubling a games development staff isn’t going to make it get played twice as much. There’s a balance to these things.
And there’s nothing to say they can’t do more than one thing at once. They can invest more internally, expand existing teams and keep an eye out for acquisition potential. Acquiring studios and publishers might take multiple years to pay off but it’s all the more reason the strike while the iron is hot and build as strong a library of developers as they can so in 5 or 10 years time we’re reaping the benefits rather than wondering if they should have bought more and facing a longer wait if they do.
6 Likes
Another day and just another reason why CDPR needs to be the next company MS buys. The article gives the breakdown for each game and I can see Game Pass leading to even more success for CDPR, if MS gets them.
4 Likes
Aren’t they already doing that in addition to acquiring too?
The recent example is Playground Games as they are building an entirely new RPG studio.
Compulsion Games has doubled in size under MS.
Mojang has gone from around 40 employees to 700+.
Ninja Theory has grown into two separate teams.
343 has nearly doubled in size since 2016 having grown to 750+ (they had 30 when they were first founded).
If you look at nearly every studio they have either created new teams, opened new studios/locations or increased their headcount under MS.
MS has the funding to do this AND acquire new studios/publishers too. The latter is obviously much quicker in getting new content out.
7 Likes
Seem like people still dont understand the plan of xbox, they arent thinking about right now, instead they are getting prepare for the future, afterall is a long plan they have been building since 2018
And sure is dissapointing how developers like 343 or rare takes an eternity to realise stuff, but giving them more resources and time isnt going to solve anything
Xbox can do both things, just because they are buying abk doesnt mean they cant concentrate on their own games, but I think that they need to give a hand to booty, he is dealing with several studios all by himself
1 Like
and here I thought that Starfield thread necro bump was the dumbest thing id read on this site today 
1 Like
Seems like a no brainer for gamepass, and xbox could take its position as the king of wrpgs, I still hope that cdpr will not try to make another super ambitious title like cyberpunkk, instead just make medium to large experiences that are polished
Seeing the last minecraft updates being bare bones I think it isnt necessary to have to much developers tbh, sometimes is just dead weight but that doesnt belong in this thread so I will leave it like that
1 Like
Phil brought up the clear needs recently.
- 1.) Creative talent
- 2.) Mobile developers
- 3.) International developers in areas they traditionally aren’t strong
I’d look for them to target studios that fit those areas in addition to studies they are already trying out.
5 Likes
What from Xbox studios has a release date in the next 6 months? Pentiment in a few weeks and Forza maybe in spring. Starfield and Redfall don’t even have a release month with Starfield saying hopefully first half.
Nothing else past that has even a release year. Unless there is a ton of Xbox Game studios game announcement so somehow missed?
They have bought a ton of studios and spent a ton of money and don’t have a single title to show for it except…Grounded? Lots of titles coming out eventually but with how slow and delayed all the titles are maybe they need to help support their studios more is my point instead of just adding and adding now and really having anything to actually show.
Mojang had a ton of employees doing what? Ninja Theory has been quiet so hopefully whatever they are working on is good. 343 being that size is absolutely shocking with how little content there has been for Halo (that studio shakeup hopefully helps them cause it’s kind of sad).
At the end of the day whatever they are doing isn’t working yet as we aren’t getting anything for all that investment they made.
1 Like
Then this thread isnt for you at all, if you want to complaint about xbox output then there is several places you could go
8 Likes
They aren’t taking any longer than the usual AAA development + effects of COVID. And acquisitions (or somehow lack thereof according to you) will not buy them time or accelerate the development of games in significant ways.
1 Like
Yeah, I’m not engaging with that
4 Likes
So @Shpeshal_Nick brings an interesting point that if Microsoft’s acquisition of ABK, the biggest publisher there is, goes through, that means regulators won’t have basis to block them from other publisher acquisitions because they would all be smaller than ABK. Interesting point on the surface, but don’t think it necessarily goes like that. They would have the argument of Microsoft’s recent and accelerated growth through those big mergers, they could say Microsoft can’t keep being the only one buying up big publishers with no seeming competition over those mergers from other parties in the industry. The pace and scale of Microsoft acquisitions would simply seem unbalanced at an industry scale if they attempt another big publisher acquisition after ABK without other big players entering into similar mergers at scale.
8 Likes
Seriously?
Minecraft is literally one of the biggest IP’s out there, it has continuous content and spin off games such as Dungeons and Legends.
It’s disappointing yes, but we’re you expecting them to change to a GAAS studio overnight? They are still smaller than Bungie (826 employees) but it takes time to build a team up and change the whole culture of a studio.
It’s not like the content is not coming, we have the bigger Halo update coming this month (in 7 days time).
My point was you were saying they should invest internally instead of acquiring but I have already demonstrated they are doing that (and already have). Most of their big teams have already doubled in size if not quadrupled.
People still compare them to PlayStation but forget that they had a 7 year lead on Xbox and acquired the biggest European game publisher (Psygnosis) back in 1993. They have also acquired nearly every single one of their studios (20 acquisitions) many of which occurred before the first Xbox even released!
If we go back 4 years to 2018 Xbox had hardly any first party studios and the typical time it takes to make a AAA game is 5 years+. I know waiting sucks but if you are serious about Xbox growing internally you need to give them the same time that PlayStation was afforded.
9 Likes
Not sure. Personally I don’t see that many people caring about it online. At least on Xbox side.
Nothing prevents other companies from acquisitions or creating new games. After ABK, you can’t find a reason to block other acquisition because other publishers (outside Take 2 and EA) don’t even have titles that are “irreplaceable” and pricewise and sales wise coming close to what ABK offered. Amount of publishers do not matter either as publisher essentially is a set of studios and Embracer for example has 100+ of studios.
ABK is such a circus only due to its size.
1 Like
It is. The only bigger publisher is Nintendo, followed by EA and Take 2. If Microsoft bought any of them…they’d win…so even if GTA or Fifa would stay multiplatform…it wouldnt matter.
Win what exactly? 
Even if they brought EA & TakeTwo (after ABK) they would likely still be behind Tencent in gaming revenue.
https://newzoo.com/insights/rankings/top-25-companies-game-revenues
We often see the below image thrown around which just simply adds the two revenue streams (Microsoft & ABK), however realistically it’s not that simple. I suspect they will be around the same level as PS or perhaps even a little lower (until GP subs grow further).
You have to take into account things like people would buy a $70 ABK game are now getting it included in their GP sub, so ABK sales will technically go down but subs will hopefully go up!
2 Likes
The console war, which would increase their gaming revenue beyond just adding them up.
Unfortunately, it would probably be blocked for other reasons. Microsoft will never have a monopoly, but regulators will always find nuances to block its expansion. I don’t even feel like the regulators mentioned Tencent in discussions about ABK. We only hear about Sony.
Yes, especially since COD will no longer have an annual release.
1 Like
Not necessary. Why? Because Nintendo Switch doesn’t have GTA 
So you can compete even without all those third parties - Nintendo would just fine without EA, ABK, T2, Ubisoft, CDPR etc. Probably they would do fine even without japanese publishers.
Sony’s complaints do not change much at all aside drawing ire from other players in the gaming market.