This game was to be released before World of Warcraft, I remember at the time, I didn’t think a game like this could exist, it was so ambitious. I feel like Level-5 could make games that are decades ahead of the rest of the industry if you give them the budget
I don’t think MS would be against letting them release games on other platforms, at least Switch/Nintendo considering how huge they are in Japan
That way they’d still make money of any switch sales but have a permanent pieces of Japanese content for GP
But that won’t help with Game Pass growth though as people will flock to Switch (granted considering the sales it does not sell well on Switch either lol)
On it’s own, probably not but it’s a start and they need to start getting permanent consistent content from Japan
I guess this GP port was a cash injection from Microsoft. Still I am not sure if Microsoft is interested in acquiring small studios like that. But considering that their upcoming game not only does not have Xbox version but even PC , I think their money trouble is self inflicted at this point.
Yeah I’m not sure what their strategy is anymore
After Bethesda I figured they’d be done with publishers for a while at least and go back to studios but then they bought ABK and that’s in areas where they are strong unlike Japan
Well, ABK was an accident basically. Nobody expected that 
Well, to be fair, a lot of publishers (including MS) still use their own proprietary engines for a lot of their projects.
Well, the games like Doom and COD won’t migrate to Unrea (Blizzard’s internal games probably use their own engines too)l but I believe the likehood of Unreal being used in every new project is more than 50%.
Could Microsoft make a Shadowrun game again or would Microsoft rather just let the IP go third party with Harebrained Schemes?
They could allow Arkane to make an immersive sim in the Shadowrun universe, or hire Eidos Montreal to do it, or have Machine Games do it after Indiana Jones, or The Initiative after Perfect Dark.
There is speculation that Arkane Lyon’s next project is Shadowrun (mainly because Dinga I think said he/they would love to do it).
I would prefer Arkane keep making their own IP but I’m sure it would be great.
There was a rumor regarding Shadowrun and Arkane
I kind of wonder if Arkane Lyon are making Dishonored 3 but setting it after Deathloop in the timeline.
Or still having it set before Deathloop but more clearly referencing Blackreef and tying the games together.
Level 5 is a story I’ve been following for quite some time
The first fall was them thinking the Switch would fail (a fall for quite a number of JP studios) and not taking it seriously at first. This was a souring experience with their relationship with Nintendo who back in the 3DS days marketed Yokai Watch as heavily as Pokemon
The second fall was closing up Level 5 West and becoming a JP only developer. Level 5 games no longer release in the West and haven’t for some time so that’s a huge market they’re just ignoring
The third was betting the future on Mobile games which wasn’t - necessarily - wrong but ultimately they never had a mobile hit and came crawling back to console games.
Another was milking Yokai Watch after a whiff of success to absolute death by releasing multiple games yearly and extreme overabundance of toys. YW also ended up being not popular in the West after a brief time and died as quick at it entered with YW Blasters and 3 getting limited prints leading to the Switch remake and YW4 never being localized at all.
I mean it was already evident, with it coming from 4chan.
I like Jez but he’s part of the problem by giving rumor time of day. People look at him as tier 1 Xbox journalist and for him to reply could be true without investigation is careless. Again it happens to us all but sometimes it’s best to get facts before tweeting this because most people are going to run with a narrative with no ground . Also lol at a 4chan rumor causing this chaos
Yeah, Jez needs some media training lol. This isn’t the first time he did this. He can’t seem to grasp that the things he posts are taken seriously.
Jez is good peoples but in cases like this he probably should not post it so fast.
I can name exactly 3 JP companies who are/were still pure Playstation and the rest AFAIK have embraced Switch/PS/most times PC
#1 - Aquaplus - Responsible for the Utawarerumono series which was decently big in the VN community. Have ignored the Switch for it’s entire life. Recently released a new JRPG called Monochrome Mobius on PS/PC (with the PS version being Japan only). Sold poorly and the company was acquired by some multimedia company called Crest a few weeks later.
#2 - Falcom - Developed exclusively for PS and licensed out Switch/PC ports to NISA who delivered them 2-3 years later. After underperforming sales of Kuro no Kiseki in Japan, shareholders asked “Why aren’t you supporting Switch?”. Anyway Falcom will finally start internally supporting Switch in the right bold year of 2023 (6th year of the Switch) with Ys X being PS/Switch day 1.
#3 - Compile Heart - Neptunia series. They keep coming out as PS only releases and keep selling like crap and then keep getting made. Don’t know lol, the budgets must be microscopic. I can tell you the games aren’t beyond the Switch’s capabilities.
Beyond these, every smaller JP company I can think of is either Switch/PS/PC now, or Switch/PC. I can think of almost none who are purely Switch, and the ones that come to mind make such microscopic budget games that they are assuredly doing fine.
There’s some smaller JP companies going through some rough patches, that’s for sure. Most are actually doing quite fine though, and the majority of times that’s because of the Switch being a good home for them. We probably hear about the ones doing bad here a lot because of the demand for MS to acquire in the region.
And then, the bonus “pure PS” company mention, because why not:
#4 - Square Enix - Yeah the elephant in the room. We already know the story here, they get big paychecks to keep their big games only on PS. Not much more to explain here.
Please stay on topic (Xbox Studios) and take the “these studios would be a good fit” discussion to the Acquisition thread: