And I wouldn’t even blame MS if they don’t. They have tried with those games so much. With Remedy, with Insomniac, with Tomb Raider, Ryse, Scalebound, etc. It never worked well for them. They had bad ROI. They never worked for them the way it has worked well for Sony. So it’s understandable if they don’t try to focus on those, but be more cautious and picky with some of them, hope that Game Pass can prove they can get wildly successful for them and then they should invest in more.
For some reason Microsoft is relatively unlucky with all that time. And they were unlucky the whole Xbox One gen (whether they brought it upon themselves is another discussion though). In Xbox 360 they were cool, but in Xbox One era
- they got Quantum Break (with controversy surrounding Xbox One it tanked the game significantly, also TV TV)
- their third party game deals like Dead Rising were also not great, where each game declined in quality
- RoTR was a victim of time exclusivity outrage
- Ryse looked good, but gameplay was weak and boring
- Scalebound died etc.
With Game Pass, they are aiming now at IPs with high engagement values and - ironically - those are not Sony style games at all as they low level of replayability or legs. That’s why acquisition like NRS would make sense, but CD - probably not.
That’s why my favourite publishers are
- Take 2 - GTA and GTA mainly. NBA arguable too but it requires third party negotiations. They have some cool IPs, but a lot of them in limbo.
- Square Enix - FF14 and FF14 only, also a middle finger to Sony
- Capcom - these folks are interesting. They have IPs like Monster Hunter and SF with potentially high engagement values. And also they are one of those publishers whose core IPs are not dead - Resident Evil, Dragon’s Dogma, potentially Devil May Cry.
It is very interesting to see regarding the exclusivity of those games as - no matter what people say - Microsoft wants and makes games exclusive. They won’t be able to make GTA or NBA exclusive (at least not GTA6 if it is ever coming). With Square Enix - it will take ages to get Xbox game from them, much less exclusive game at all (FF14 might finally come to Xbox though). Capcom - good thing is that a lot of their game are gonna be released soon (SF6, RE4R, Pragmata), so the next ones can be made exclusive.
P.S. also I have a personal reasons to bet on the idea of Microsoft acquiring japanese publisher - I am too tired listening to the Sony folks acting as if Sony owns all japanese publishers and that getting exclusive games from is some natural thing.
1 Like
Cpacom is perfect. After that SEGA. Hitting multiple birds with one stone.
He’s either being nostalgic, trolly, or both.
Ed Boon has always been this way.
If it means more, then yay! Otherwise this is pretty normal for him.
My point was how would your average consumer know this when choosing which platform to buy? There is no official confirmation that any of these upcoming games will fill that gap on Xbox.
Within this genre/style Hellblade is the only guaranteed exclusive for someone choosing between Xbox or PlayStation.
Compulsions game is based on a insider rumour and insiders are more often wrong then they are right! There is no official confirmation of their game or what they are working on. For all we know it could be a RPG or anything else. Hopefully it’s good but both of their last two games also scored under 70 on Metacritic, so it’s not something most will be hyped for either.
Indiana Jones is confirmed but we don’t know what type of game it is, we also don’t know if it’s exclusive or multi-platform. If it’s multi-platform the consumer may just choose the other platform still.
Perfect Dark is another example, we know it’s eventually coming. As Crystal Dynamics is involved it should fit that genre but we literally no nothing at this point.
So how is an acquisition gonna fix that? You’re also gonna have to wait, even longer, before you see the games from new acquisitions announced and then shown. So, it’s all wait. Literally all we have is to wait.
For what it’s worth, Compulsion’s new unannounced game was confirmed to be a third person story-driven game from one of the devs on the Iron Lords Podcast not so long ago.
3 Likes
That’s assuming these new games are going to offer those style/genre. Outside of Hellblade the consumers which want these games may end up having to wait forever if they aren’t even in development. I do feel this is also a marketing issue, if these are the type of games they intend to offer they need to advertise it and make it official!
Going back to my original point if that’s the genre they enjoy and they are trying to choose what console to buy they won’t know what’s rumoured to be in development, whereas the other platform is advertising that they have a few of these genre on the way and the consumer already knows what to expect.
An acquisition would be the quickest way to get those style of games exclusive to your platform (some of which may already be a decent way into development).
Even if Compulsions game and Indiana Jones do cater to those consumers it is hardly enough content to provide that pull of exclusive content to a subscription service/platform is it? Acquiring more studios/publishers that make these style of games would fix that and also maybe make a consumer have second thoughts about whether to buy A or B (when Xbox also have these exclusive games on the way that appeal to them too)…
1 Like
Thanks I will try dig this out 
Conker would be a perfect character for mortal kombat, just saying
I agree, though they have brought other games to gamepass that interest that crowd, examples like Tomb Raider, Outriders, Guardians of the Galaxy and Plagues Tale 2.
Personally, I think they’d benefit by acquiring Asobo and IOI. They would have pretty nice coverage with that. Maybe not a game a year, but they’d get them every 2ish years. There are several indie devs probably ready to make th next jump that specialize in these games.
3 Likes
IOI do not making those type of games.
The Hitman series is about as close to Uncharted and Tomb Raider as any other game.
Lmao no!! Hitman is not story-driven, action or cinematic (they tried with Absolution but it wasn’t good), it’s a social stealth sandbox that really shines with experimentation and repetition. It’s not really any fun playing once and linearly for its story or in any way similar to those linear action adventure games.
Maybe the way you play, the way I play, it’s not far off those other two.
It depends on how you play. If you play games like @Shpeshal_Nick does, then every game plays alike when you skip the cut-scenes and dialogs.
3 Likes
The way it’s designed is vastly different from linear action adventure games. It’s literally the opposite of those games in how it structures itself. Something like Uncharted, almost everything is predefined and predetermined by the developers, it’s all one flow, the set pieces and the encounters and the puzzles. In Hitman, they open up a level for you, give you starting objectives, and some hints, and then you study the level and figure out how to achieve things differently each time yourself. The point of Hitman isn’t one set perfectly scripted experience like Uncharted, it’s about repeating those levels and figuring out different ways to finish them each time, multiple times. I don’t see how fun it could be playing a level once and approaching it like a linear game.
I would love to know this as well, we know they liked the series and studios well enough to hire them to work on perfect dark and to lock down tomb raider for a 1 year exclusive. It stands to reason that they would have purchased the west division if other more important things weren’t going on. Personally I think it was more of a timing issue more than anything else, but we will probably never know for sure. I’m also one of those people that likes the 3rd person action adventure games and it should be addressed at some point via a acquisition as we know Xbox doesn’t force their studios to do specific types of games or genres so the easiest way to make sure you have it in your portfolio is to acquire multiple studios that specialize and enjoy making these types of games.
3 Likes
Telltale games would have filled that role nicely, is a shame they are here anymore, the only one I can think about is supermassive, and talking about indies, how about that’s no moon?
Telltale is still around, sorta. Someone bought up what was left and reopened the studio. If I understand it they function similarly to The Initiative - they’re staying small and relying on outsourcing (including to nearby studios formed by former Telltale staff). They have Wolf Among Us 2 in production at the moment with a lot of the former staff, as well as a video game based on The Expanse made with Deck Nine.
Telltale still has one of their biggest problems they had before though - they only make licensed games. They don’t come with any IPs (other than perhaps a couple small things from their early days) and their back catalogue comes with strings attached. Still though - I think episodic story content like Telltale is known for would be perfect for game pass. Microsoft would stand to benefit from owning them and letting them work on some of Xbox’s IPs or something new (same goes for other episodic game studios like Deck Nine/Don’t Nod or the teams formed out of former Telltale staff).
1 Like