Xbox Game Studios |OT| Halo...is it me you’re looking for?

[Joe_Sinister1 (Joe_Sinister)]

@DannyEight

Chasing the mass appeal sucks, and just leads to dumbed down casualised games. See God of War reboot. The only people who think that’s an amazing game are the same people who think MCU is the pinnacle of cinema.

I kinda get where you’re coming from but i’ll put it this way , i feel like games “AAA” games especially are becoming homogenized. Many of them follow the same exact “formula”. Third person, “Cinematic” ( because the videogame industry REALLY wants sempai Hollywood to notice them) , some form of crafting , force walking etc. Some form of sad Dad or big Sister etc is optional. Has to have a “realistic” art style and grounded feel.

I really did not like Nu GOW at all. GOW 3 was great and had very epic moments , it was no Ninja Gaiden Black or Bayonetta but it was damned fun. To see it become this new thing where you have some fixed camera and slow clunky looking combat just didn’t do it for me. ( there are actually a few reasons other than that i disliked GOW but not getting into it now)

I hope that the Xbox division keeps putting out diverse line up and doesn’t become Sony 2.0 where this is the dominate type of game they make. It’s not that i don’t like these kinds of games , i actually enjoyed TLOU 2’s gameplay. I just don’t need every game to play that way, i’d rather they concentrate on establishing themselves as THE console for RPG’s.

Real rpgs btw, not faux Ubisoft openworld games with lite rpg mechanics and shallow skill trees.

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@mutualcore

Not concerned about lootboxes, just the game being half-baked because I’m not 100% convinced Phil Spencer believes in putting out a masterpiece on day 1. He has to prove it.

The brand is still alive because of his commitment to it.

[Proven]

@mutualcore

Not concerned about lootboxes, just the game being half-baked because I’m not 100% convinced Phil Spencer believes in putting out a masterpiece on day 1. He has to prove it.

So is Wasteland 3 gamepass fodder… is the delay of Halo Infinite because they wanted it to be half baked? Your comment is the complete opposite of the reality of where xbox is right now.

[DeoGame (Farewell)]

I will say this, imagine there are two food trucks. One is called Sunny’s, and one is called X-Cellence.

Now at Sunny’s, they have the best french fries in the world. Everyone who wants french fries agrees they are the best out there. French fries are so vital to Sunny’s business that their menu is fairly simple: Hamburgers, French Fries and Coca Cola, with certain items like Hot Dogs on special rotation. One meal of all three costs about $15, so it’s on the pricy side, but those french fries are delicious.

Over at X-Cellence, their fries are totally fine. They are handcut, blanched, proper. But they are not close to Sunny’s. X-Cellence realizes that they aren’t gonna compete with Sunny’s, and so they ensure that customers have plenty of choice and value. For $5, a customer can curate their own meal of a main, side and drink. They offer both Pepsi and Coca Cola. They offer Hamburgers, Chicken Burgers, Hot Dogs, BLTs. And for the sides, they have their decent fries but also have Salad, Onion Rings, Mozzarella Sticks, Mac N Cheese bites.

Now, not everything on X-Cellence’s menu is universally appealing. I for one do not like Mac N Cheese bites at all. But, my favorite side is onion rings and I am really craving a Chicken Burger. At X-Cellence I can do that and have exactly what I want at a low price, and not have to hope its on rotation like at Sunny’s.

Meanwhile, some people sit back and go: why aren’t your fries as good as Sunny’s? Or, Sunny’s uses imported Japanese Wagyu beef in their burgers while you only serve Angus. Or, why is your menu filled with needless fodder like salad? I don’t want salad!

If that is truly how you feel, Sunny’s is right there. But to discount the efforts of X-Cellence to make their menu more approachable and affordable because the fries aren’t as good as Sunny’s is ridiculous. Could X-Cellence stand to get better fries? Yes! Could it help to have a more positive relationship with their Japanese suppliers. Absolutely. But to act as if the only things people ever want to eat are burgers, fries and Coca Cola because you like them is ridiculous, and it would be a crying shame it X-Cellence left their menu in the dust just to go chase after Sunny’s with moving goal posts (Why is the Ketchup French’s and not Heinz? Why is this burger Medium Rare? I wanted Medium Rare light? Etc.)

[mutualcore]

@Doncabesa

The brand is still alive because of his commitment to it.

He’s still not shown that he’s proactively trying to deliver masterpiece on day 1. Halo: Infinite delayed because of huge gamer outcry. They should have seen out ugly it looked internally and delayed it w/o ever showing us ‘Craig’. Only once they are consistently proactively trying to deliver masterpiece on day 1 will they have made a real culture change.

[OneBadMutha]

I understand why some people are not satisfied with Microsoft’s current approach. We all are allowed to have different gaming tastes. Sometimes a change in direction from a company no longer serves people it once served. We need to accept the focus of Xbox that has some of us really excited is also the same reason others are disappointed. Acceptance of people’s preferences needs to work both ways.

Personally I’m excited because Xbox as a platform is filling a lot of gaps left by other platforms or major publishers. At the same time they have gaps of their own. Depending on what types of games and genres you value most, you’ll perceive it differently. I’m more excited about the return of highly polished, bigger budget games in genres that have been unsupported by the AAA scene this gen. I’m also looking forward to some of those genres maybe gaining more mainstream support and other publishers jumping in due to mindshare boosts from Game Pass.

[mutualcore]

@OneBadMutha

…in direction from a company no longer serves people it once served. We need to accept the focus of Xbox that has some of us really excited is also the same reason others are disappointed. Acceptance of people’s preferences needs to work both ways. Personally I’m excited because Xbox as a platform is filling a lot of gaps left by other platforms or major publishers. At the same time they have gaps of their own. Depending on what types of games and genres you value most, you’ll perceive it differently. I’m more excited about the return of highly polished, bigger budget games in genres that have been unsupported by the AAA scene this gen. I’m also looking forward to some of those genres maybe gaining more mainstream support and other publishers jumping in due to mindshare boosts from Game Pass.

GaaS can work with ‘Grounded’ at the moment because it’s ‘early access’. However I don’t think you can put out a $60 game with no ‘early access’ tag implying it’s a masterpiece but it’s filled with bugs, dropped frames and has too little story. Not saying Grounded has done this, just something to be wary of.

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@mutualcore

He’s still not shown that he’s proactively trying to deliver masterpiece on day 1. Halo: Infinite delayed because of huge gamer outcry. They should have seen out ugly it looked internally and delayed it w/o ever showing us ‘Craig’. Only once they are consistently proactively trying to deliver masterpiece on day 1 will they have made a real culture change.

Flight Sim is a masterpiece, I reviewed Wasteland 3 and consider it a masterpiece in large part to the time/money given after the xbox acquisition. Ori 2 is a masterpiece that had framerate issues on day 1 but the game itself is a masterpiece.

[mutualcore]

@Doncabesa

Flight Sim is a masterpiece, I reviewed Wasteland 3 and consider it a masterpiece in large part to the time/money given after the xbox acquisition. Ori 2 is a masterpiece that had framerate issues on day 1 but the game itself is a masterpiece.

Yes all that’s true, but why did Phil think it was ok to show us ‘Craig’? Seriously Sony never would have made a blunder like that. That single-handedly killed the XSX hype for a lot of people.

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@mutualcore

Yes all that’s true, but why did Phil think it was ok to show us ‘Craig’? Seriously Sony never would have made a blunder like that. That single-handedly killed the XSX hype for a lot of people.

No it didn’t, a split second freeze frame of a non-animating death model didn’t kill hype for anything. The actual reactions to Infinite’s gameplay was overwhelmingly positive.

[mutualcore]

@Doncabesa

No it didn’t, a split second freeze frame of a non-animating death model didn’t kill hype for anything. The actual reactions to Infinite’s gameplay was overwhelmingly positive.

Not reading on forums and Youtube it wasn’t. Overwhelmingly negative.

[DannyEight]

@Doncabesa

No, it is not a legit fear. GaaS games can’t be the majority of what you get on Game Pass because they’re designed to be your “only” game and Game pass is about having a variety of things to play.

It is a legit fear, because a subscription model can’t afford games that cost millions not making some additional money back. I do have a fear that even the likes of Avowed will have some sort of gaas element (think Ubisoft single player games), and until the day this new ‘MS’ publishes a big budget single player game without gaas I’ll be waiting.

[OneBadMutha]

@mutualcore

GaaS can work with ‘Grounded’ at the moment because it’s ‘early access’. However I don’t think you can put out a $60 game with no ‘early access’ tag implying it’s a masterpiece but it’s filled with bugs, dropped frames and has too little story. Not saying Grounded has done this, just something to be wary of.

Looking at Xbox 1st party roadmap, it’s much more than GAAS games. Their 1st party rightfully gained a reputation for half baked or rushed games this gen. That was under a division that was underfunded most of this gen that had a business strategy to release everything by the Holiday shopping season. We’ve already seen with delays to Psychonauts 2, Wasteland 3, and Halo Infinite, a different strategy. Game Pass allows them to release games any time of the year. Not beholden to holidays. If Halo is allowed to be delayed, anything is. Of course when every studio does their own thing and games don’t have similar templates, QA is more difficult. They’ll have to get better next gen but we’ve already seen signs that they will.

[DannyEight]

@mutualcore

Also I’m not convinced the bro-gamers care for any of this new content Microsoft is creating. So the bro-gamers won’t care and will PS4 people look at a potentially half-baked Avowed and buy an Xbox? I don’t know.

They don’t need to really, an xcloud app on smart TV’s will result in more Playstation gamers playing XGS games.

As for ‘bro gamers’, don’t they just play cod/sports anyway?

[SuikerBrood]

@mutualcore

Also I’m not convinced the bro-gamers care for any of this new content Microsoft is creating. So the bro-gamers won’t care and will PS4 people look at a potentially half-baked Avowed and buy an Xbox? I don’t know.

Let’s hope not all publishers do the same thing and serve the same type of customers. Look at Nintendo and how they’re doing. They carved out their own niche. Microsoft has plenty of different studios to create their own customer base. There will be no better place to play racing games and WRPG’s than Xbox Series X (well, I guess PC) in the coming years.

If you really like Sony’s blockbuster type titles, you’ll be better served there. And that’s not a problem. Choice is good.

[Doncabesa (Jesse Norris)]

@DannyEight

It is a legit fear, because a subscription model can’t afford games that cost millions not making some additional money back. I do have a fear that even the likes of Avowed will have some sort of gaas element (think Ubisoft single player games), and until the day this new ‘MS’ publishes a big budget single player game without gaas I’ll be waiting.

It’s the opposite, everything being GaaS is the last thing you want as a subscription based model. You’re asking people to commit to one game when the point is in the variety you offer.

[Mort]

@mutualcore

Sea of Thieves is a perfect example of ‘Game Pass’ fodder and GAAS push. Yes the game is amazing now and it took 2 years to get there. However I think that game is quirky enough that it got away with it. Hellblade 2 can not be half-baked at launch. It has to be a graphical masterpiece, excellent combat mechanics and have a massive length.

There is no such thing as “Game Pass fodder”. Xbox Game Pass is designed to be enticing to many types of gamers, it has to have a wide variety of games in different genres. That’s everything from small indie titles via GAAS-games to AAA-3rd person-cinematic-narrative-story driven-bearded man- singleplayer games. And everything in between.

[Biggzy (Hassan)]

@SuikerBrood

Let’s hope not all publishers do the same thing and serve the same type of customers. Look at Nintendo and how they’re doing. They carved out their own niche. Microsoft has plenty of different studios to create their own customer base. There will be no better place to play racing games and WRPG’s than Xbox Series X (well, I guess PC) in the coming years.

If you really like Sony’s blockbuster type titles, you’ll be better served there. And that’s not a problem. Choice is good.

In my opinion Microsoft probably has the most diverse portfolio games coming up that we know of. There is no point Microsoft going almost exclusively after the 3rd person blockbuster segment because that is already being served as you say. Also, not every gamer plays those sort of games, so Microsoft needs to be a big tent for all gamers.

[Resist]

@mutualcore

to be able to stand up to God of War in all respects or it’s a huge fail.

third person, narrative focused. action games being the “main course” is definitely a matter of opinion. and most of MS studios definitely aren’t making that type of game nor do they have the inclination.

[Redesigned83]

@SuikerBrood

Let’s hope not all publishers do the same thing and serve the same type of customers. Look at Nintendo and how they’re doing. They carved out their own niche. Microsoft has plenty of different studios to create their own customer base. There will be no better place to play racing games and WRPG’s than Xbox Series X (well, I guess PC) in the coming years.

If you really like Sony’s blockbuster type titles, you’ll be better served there. And that’s not a problem. Choice is good.

I don’t understand why this is (what seems to be) the general consensus around this topic. I’m sure alot of us are Xbox fans because of the diversity but can’t we also want more of the “Sony blockbusters” on Xbox.

I see a huge problem is people talk like Sony invented those types of games, like we’re asking for them to make a “Sony game”. It’s a popular genre for 100’s of reasons, I don’t think jaded Xbox fans are asking for a Sony game but moreso asking for what’s generally liked by most gamers these days.