I wouldn’t expect those games to release until next gen, all those new studios Sony is after won’t be ready until next gen but I think they know that and the plan is probably to get those games out around the PS6’s launch.
Very different situations than some of the studios Xbox acquired in 2018, who already had games in development that haven’t even shown in game yet, even Shinobi (a game dev) thinks it’s weird, it isn’t conspiratorial to think that something is off with Xbox’s management.
Shinobi is also the same guy who thinks MS should play the same game as Sony and moneyhat everything despite it not only costing far more due to market share but also Game Pass costs on top of that
Being in the industry doesn’t mean you’re thinking logically
And basically every studio MS acquired in 2018 were literally not only starting new games around then or after but also have increased scope due to extra funding, which will once again take longer
State of Decay 3, Perfect Dark, Compulsions game, Hellblade 2, Avowed etc all of them
MS mistake was showing these games so early but they were kind of forced to because they needed something to show, it has nothing to do with bad management, at least based on that alone, games simply take forever to make these days
Not to discredit Shinobi, but isn’t he on the marketing side of the industry and not actually a developer? I could be wrong, but I remember he was marketing for the studio that created Destruction Allstar. Anyways, I don’t think we can take words of everybody in the industry as a gospel because in most industry there are different philosophies and understanding of things.
I actually like Shinobi, I think he means well and isn’t being disingenuous but some people just say things before sitting down and actually thinking about the situation
People see Sony doing something and it working and the immediate response is, “well it works for Sony, why doesn’t MS do it, they are rich right?”
It’s very silly
Been with Xbox since it launched in the UK 21 years ago.
I would rather Xbox be bold and buy to own and get shut down 9 times out of 10, then do timed deals where the ownership changes and that legacy you built becomes multiplatform.
Yeah, I like him too. I just think industry being so large there’s multiple solutions to reach a goal. Anyways, he might be a developer now but I believe he’s mainly been in marketing and not much experience as a dev, so he may not be taken as a definitive answer about development due to experience level .
Also, don’t think just copy Sony is the answer
Agreed ownership is preferred but the industry is built on third party deals and getting others to Create for you
The issue with Shinobi’s idea is Game Pass doesn’t allow MS to copy Sony’s model because they need to moneyhat the game & then the lost sales on top because it would be GP day one.
That’s why MS started an acquisition spree to begin with. To fuel GP growth & the subscription model.
So the only way forward is to fight the CMA or ringfence the UK. I really do hope the EU passes the deal because it’s it blocked in Europe, then going forward with any acquisition (not just the dead Activision deal) will be very difficult or nearly impossible.
It would be the regulator’s way of saying “we want the status-quo, you cannot compete with Sony or create new markets you might dominate in the future”.
Scandalous of course, but it is what it is.
It’s extremely difficult to outbid Sony on these deals, given the difference in userbase and the current momentum - it’s enough for Sony to offer 85%/15% revenue split and it means millions of savings for the publisher, while Sony takes no risks whatsoever. A similar 85/15 offer on Xbox is nowhere near as attractive, and even money upfront from Microsoft might not outweigh going for Sony. Which means MS takes far more risks in bidding for 3rd party exclusives while also facing extreme hostility from the press when they do.
Purchasing developers/publishers outright means they turned cash into a valuable asset and can decide how to use it going forward by going exclusive/staying multiplatform to maximize profitability.
Exactly as I had said before a publisher like Sega has many European studios and developers which would trigger the CMA. The best thing will be for Microsoft to fight and win to ensure this is not an issue in the future.
I think people who don’t follow Xbox on a day to day basis just don’t care about the fact that there’s about 15 + games in development in the pipeline.
They just want the results. You can tell them about how Xbox has over 20 + studios at the moment and they’ll just shrug and say “so?” “Where’s the traditional AAA games at.”
And I totally disagree with him on that, but as of right now this CMA decision has sort of left Microsoft in no mans land with what they can and cannot buy imo if they cannot win the appeal so if they don’t win I think it would be smart to go after independent studios and maybe a Capcom and CDPR or Sega and CDPR, they will have to make more moves for sure. I think Ubisoft would be perfect tbh but that might also get blocked.
I love the diversity of their output but it would do Xbox wonders if they had a year where they had a Starfield, Redfall, Forza combined with a big 3rd person advantage game, maybe that will be Hellblade 2? 
Who knows but I do think Xbox will need to release AAA games in a timely manner for a few years in a row to shake off the image they have around the industry, outside of hardcore Xbox fans.
He has a tendency to use Playstation as the measuring stick. Lots of 1P Playstation games take 4-5 years to make and that’s with fully staffed AAA dev teams that have been operating that way for many years. Even then several games missed their release windows including GT7, HFW, and GOW R. BTW had those three hit their original release dates then 2022 would have had only TLOU remake and the Uncharted collection.
Nearly every Xbox acquisition from 2018-2019 have been hiring a lot. Growing pains are to be expected in any team, no matter the industry.
When you double click on the releases and timetables then nearly everything seems fairly normal:
Obsidian released 3 games (TOW, Grounded, Pentiment) between 2019-2021. Avowed started development in 2019. Isn’t 4-5 years on a AAA RPG fairly normal these days?
DoubleFine released Psychonauts 2 in mid-2021.
Playground released Forza Horizon 5 in late 2021. Fable was always going to 5+ years. Starting a new team and new AAA RPG from scratch these days, for what will no doubt have a multi-year GaaS roadmap, seems like common sense it would take 5+ years. On top of that, Playground has always shown their games just a few months before release. While they may have announced it, I don’t expect we’ll see it in full until year of release. It is a bummer some key folks broke off to start new studios, Lighthouse and Maverick.
Inexile released Wasteland 3 in 2020. Inexile is going for an AAA RPG, so no doubt another 5+ year dev cycle that they’re in the middle of.
^ BTW, all of the released games were critically well received.
Ninja Theory released Bleeding Edge in 2020. They’ve shown Hellblade 2 a couple of times. Briefly, but they’ve shown what they’re working on with gameplay. I have no idea what’s going on with Project Mara.
Compulsion had DLC for We Happy Few through late 2019. Their new game should be shown soon. Isn’t this the one Spencer mentioned he was excited for a couple of years back?
Undead Labs is the one I’d probably put alongside 343 as far as shakeups go. They released State of Decay 2 in 2018. Juggernaut edition with all the major DLC was released in 2020. Apparently there were major culture issues and the founder left. In 2021 they got an entirely new leadership team. I doubt we see SoD3 soon.
Thank you for the detailed write up.
I’m always a little confused when people say xbox takes too long or the games take longer than other publishers. Not really, they are pretty much on pace.
Their big mistake was not investing in 1P earlier. But since then, they’re doing fine.
343 had some problems, the initiative took some time decide where they wanna go. That’s it. I think that’s pretty normal. Only smooth sailing is not a thing in game development. Even Sony had some troubles with Bend. That’s what happens when 1000s of people work on complicated projects that take half a decade to complete.
The CMA decision only left a few possibilities that would be unlikely to run into trouble if Microsoft is going to continue doing business in the UK.
They are:
Mobile only studios and publishers as they are not connected whatsoever to any emerging technologies and are just in a mature market.
Small investments that are below the 15% threshold where the CMA has any authority.
Studio purchases that are too small to warrant any investigation, eg lets say 90 million or less.
So basically you got to do it Sony’s way but you can’t make deals with ABK, and Sony can buy more that 90 million limit, cause they suck at cloud gaming, and the market must keep the status quo with no innovation and growth in the gaming field, costumers will be delighted and thankful 
None of this does anything for gamepass growth.
It would with time and the right amount of effort to cultivating their creative teams.
Microsoft made some missteps, going back to when Mattrick went all in on Kinect and TV. It took them until 2018 (10 years later!) to find their footing and invest in creative teams again. Meanwhile, Sony made one good move after another, earning a lot of goodwill that continues to pay off.
Microsoft has the resources to prop up their creative teams plus invest in more creative teams who could use strong financial backing. They can also continue to cut deals with Sega, Ubisoft and others to bulk up Game Pass while their first party matures.
Nobody got that much time cuz Sony is already ahead of them they ain’t doing timed exclusive deal like they used to do they would rather own than doing deals it would be much better to own ubi n Sega than doing some small deals
Regulators have indicated that moves to gain substantial market share in gamepass are not allowed due to it harming the cloud industry.
I agree that its absurd, and why Ive talked at length about Microsoft needing to seriously consider wntirely abandoning a country with a rogue regulatory body.