To be fair to that point The Initiative is run by people who were formerly at Crystal Dynamics and so when the possibility of working with an external studio came up they naturally started by looking there - it doesn’t necessarily reflect a choice on Microsoft’s part.
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Hmm we get the impression they weren’t that profitable but that said they would have filled a big gap in the Xbox portfolio. I get the feeling they were being forced by SE in to doing GaaS where their expertise was clearly those big single player games.
Outside of Ninja Theory Xbox would have finally had it’s studio for making those big third person cinematic adventures, which people usually attribute to PlayStation.
The Tomb Raider games were all highly rated and the early story part of Avengers (with Ms. Marvel) was actually rather good. The new Xbox management would just let them do what they do best IMO.
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You do not need to be acquired in order to fill the gap in the portfolio. I think people look at Microsoft’s acquisitions from the wrong angle. From my point of view, Microsoft’s acquisition are not about filling the gaps or about “owning a genre” at all.
Also we know that Compulsion is making a similar type of game and Indiana Jones might be the one of that kind, Hellblade is technically too…And nothing prevents Microsoft from making the third party deals when necessary. I don’t believe that Microsoft blindly acquires company like this - like for example some people assume that Microsoft will buy some WB studios without DC IPs and I don’t believe that for a moment.
I think there is more to that than just being highly rated games.
It does not, but it also means that Microsoft was not interested in acquiring them despite being that cheap. I don’t think the partnership deal was that much cheaper than full blown CD acquisition.
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From a consumer angle you definitely need to have exclusive content and I’m not even talking timed. Still now I have friends who won’t buy a Xbox as they can only get X content on ‘other’ platforms.
If consumer A loves X genre and Xbox has no exclusives in that genre whereas PlayStation has 4-5 and the same third party deals they are obviously more likely to buy a PS over an Xbox. A timed deal will simply mean they just have to wait a while before they can buy it…
Not everyone has enough money, time or space to own multiple consoles, so the trick is making your platform appeal to the most people (which means exclusives in all genres).
Hellblade is the only one I’m expecting to fill this gap right now. We (and consumers) literally no nothing about Indiana Jones or Compulsions game yet.
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Indiana Jones aside, we know that Compulsion’s game is third person from Jez. And consumers buy the consoles without even exclusive games so…Sales is not the problem for Microsoft right now. In fact, exclusive games will - at best - improve only Series S sales, which are also good right now.
Microsoft is aiming at Game Pass growth and from what we can see they are going after big popular IPs with high engagement values and Day 1 deals for anything that might improve engagement numbers (co-op games, highly anticipated games, some exclusive perks)
So wait to know before you judge maybe? It’s your choice to not be convinced by that but I’m seeing 4-5 games from MS that would do what you describe here. You’re really making it sound like people have specific standards for those games not just overarching qualities. From what you seem to describe, only Naughty Dog and SSM make those games on the Playstation side. That’s not much either.
Saying “there’s room for more” is another thing, I’d agree with it.
Ed Boon en Twitter: “Basement discovery… https://t.co/3wgk9vH6Ef” / Twitter
What is trying to say us?
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Pearl Abyss could be a great acquisition, encompasses the Asian and Western markets.
He’s been dropping many Xbox related posts lately. Is he just an Xbox fan or something?
Funnily enough they are very very cheap.
Well, kinda. He has good relationship with Xbox as I think bunch of execs at Xbox are his friends. It is one of those situation that Sony beneifts greatly in Japan (though a lot of them are retiring there).
No Man’s Sky
That’s exactly what I’m doing?
Have you seen anything from Compulsion? Have they officially released any details? Was their previous game a 80+ meta? We literally have nothing to go on so I’m excluding it at the moment.
Indiana Jones is exactly the same, the only difference is we know MachineGames have a pedigree of releasing great FPS games.
The point is that they are making Sony style games right now, no point to discount the studios like this. Just because they are not the studio X, it does not mean they are not making the similar style of games.
I think when people mention style they also mean scope and quality. I expect high quality from Ninja Theory and (hope) Compulsion Games. I don’t think we’re getting similar scope though.
Hellblade 2 won’t be God of War, and that’s fine. Doesn’t mean that Xbox couldn’t use a God of War though.
I wonder if people will say Sony needs a Starfield
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If you go into the Playstation threads you’ll see complaining about WRPGs and lack of investment in Japan lol. Just not as much complaining as here.
I’m not even one of the dudes begging for these games, but I don’t think we should ignore their popularity.
I’m really not, I just know MS have projects in the pipeline to address that, more than Hellblade 2. I mean ffs their first wave of acquisitions were largely about addressing that.
The reason for that is that Sony’s style of games (and JRPGs) are very popular and highly acclaimed among the media and hardcore community. So Sony folks feel self-gratification knowing that Sony “owns” JRPG and third person single player games.
Other types of games are considered “inferior”. So what if Fortnite or Minecraft are humongonous? GoW is better. And so on.
Except WRPG are there as well, one of the most awarded and highly rated games from those hardcore community and media are WRPGs. There’s a reason every game is becoming an RPG or adding RPG mechanics 
It is been a long time since we got the really big high budget WRPG though. Single player cinematic games are just easier to use for comparison with anything.
We only got Ubisoft’s style games, Sony’s style games that were highly acclaimed recently. We also got FPS and racing games (but folks online discount them all the time).
We also had Elden Ring, but visual fidelity is the last thing people think of it.
All in all, the recent visual showcases were coming from Sony’s or Ubisoft style games (because of course people discount racing games). That’s why I want Microsoft to finally release something high budget high level visual fidelity. And partially that’s why a lot of people want Avowed to look amazing too.