You realize that Sony has made two games with From Software, Activision made one and Atlus used to publish games for them…right? They’re an independent studio that’s willing to have their games published by anyone who gives them the money and respect to do so.
Same with Koei Techmo studios like Omega Force and Team Ninja. Microsoft needs to start picking up the phone and hire someone to fly over to Japan to start some meetings. Phil’s an important guy, send Matt Booty or someone over for that, they have to have someone for Global Publishing that isn’t Matt or Phil that’s always looking for new content.
People swear developing games is like ordering a product on Amazon. You pay, get your choice of who works on the game, and just sit back and wait 3-5 years for delivery
You can do that with some developers, that’s almost exactly how Fallout New Vegas was made. They had an engine and Zenimax wanted a new title to keep their revenues up, they contacted Obsidian and managed to get one of the best games in the Fallout Franchise, ad it only took 18 months.
And no, obviously it’s not like ordering a product on Amazon. Don’t take my idea in a negative light just because Microsoft hasn’t been as active with this method of game development. We used to get Ninja Gaiden and other titles like Crackdown 1, Ninety Nine Nights and Lost Odyssey through their global publishing division. They can do better.
And why From Software? Well, they have a great in-house engine that’s great for third person combat and spell casting already. A lot of elements of Phantom Dust can already be seen as applicable and achieveable on their engine.
That requires that the developer have both a team ready to do the work and a willingness to do the work.
That said Xbox has plenty of XGSP games in the works but also has shifted strategy to focus more on Day 1 Game Pass games. Whether that is a pro or a con is up to you I suppose. As a Game Pass subscriber, I don’t think of Wo Long or High on Life as much different than a XGSP game (yes, I know there are differences).
They certainly are different when a year from release they’ll be taken off Game Pass, I never got to finish The Medium but if that game was published by Microsoft it would still be available on the service.
Part of the reason I’m unsubbed from game pass at the moment is because lately I’ve felt burned on the amount of third party games that leave the service than I’m somehow always playing.
Microsoft is being a little risk averse with their XGSGP deals that have so far been announced. Most of the games seem like they’re PC focused strategy titles and there’s no way Ara has the budget that Ninja Gaiden 2 or Sunset Overdrive had, nor does it bring any eyes to people choosing an Xbox.
Yes, I know that there are differences and that is one of the key ones. That said, it’s like a sub 10 hour game and was in the service for like a year. Game Pass can be rough to keep up with but if there is a game you really want to play it should be manageable (or just buy it on discount).
And I still don’t see risk averse. We just had As Dusk Falls, we are getting a Wu Tang game, we likely have Wandering Tower this year, other big games like Contraband and Project Dragon. None of that is conservative, it just sounds like you want to go back to the days of old and have more Japanese games.
Contraband could be popular, I just don’t see any talk about As Dusk Falls as something among the discussion groups outside of game journalist and echo chambers like any Era site. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on Contraband not having any discussion when all we got was a trailer of a garage and a logo.
Maybe they should look into working on more action titles, those are popular and in demand from Xbox first party. I know some of my friends are well aware of Wu Long: Fallen Dynasty.
Fable is probably the most intriguing game coming from Xbox for me because I really want to see where Playground takes the Forza engine next, they’ve done amazing improvements with each new Forza Horizon game and I’m looking forward to seeing if Fable will also be an open world with dynamic weather and time of day like Forza Horizon so far, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being Xbox’s game of the generation, that’s how much I trust Playground.
