Xbox Game Studios |OT10| Here are the games

Under Phil’s leadership, Xbox got the resources it needs from Microsoft and went from 6 to 23 first party studios (soon to be more) and revolutionised the delivery and monetisation of games with Game Pass to the point where the entire industry is copying them. Backwards compatibility also happened under his watch and he invested in the future of gaming with cloud. Plus, Xbox revenues are still through the roof, which is what MS leadership cares about. We have dozens of first party games coming whereas last gen we had barely any.

I know we’re are in the doom and gloom cycle right now, but the fact is that today’s landscape is NOWHERE NEAR as dire or negative as the Xbox One cycle. Like, not even close.

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I mean this whole person cult thing is a bit much. Xbox is a team effort. But lets look at the facts.

for:

  • developed the brand from barely 8 billion $ annual revenue to over 16 billion $
  • got from 7 or 8 first party studios to over 20
  • doesnt have to answer anymore to “why are we in gaming?” but instead is Microsofts CEO of gaming
  • Minecraft developed into the biggest game in the known universe
  • made Jim Ryan cry like an anime fan on prom night

against:

  • Redfall is only 30fps

Ok, i can see it clearly now. The guy has to go!

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This is reason enough for Phil to stay.

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Would really suck if Amazon were to do the same just because they both have a service. And as for Netflix, are their games even playable well on their own service? I’m not yet seeing how Netflix is a competitor for MS. I can barely think of one big Netflix game.

Game sales ? Microsoft cares more about Game Pass than sales.

30 FPS only is not great, but I would wait for the release. And Ghostwire performance problems is very annoying.

What is in your opinion major ? For me Pentiment was amazing and this year we have Minecraft Legends, AoE 2 console, Hifi Rush. Redfall and Starfield are coming soon.

That problem started in 2010 and got worse with the one year delay X1 release in Japan. The only major skip we have is Square because they are waiting for Game Pass money.

And that’s why the next Xbox console is in the making.

Let’s see.

  • saves the Xbox division and his team had the idea to put Xbox into the cloud

  • was the reason for the Minecraft acquisition

  • now Microsoft is spending money on acquiring publishers and are close to spend almost $70 billion on ABK.

I get it when people are frustrated with Xbox like Marketing and the Square situation, but some of you guys need to chill.

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They are a competitor because they offer games through a subscription service (and the biggest subscription service in the world). The size of their games offering right now is neither here or there.

For the longest time, Game Pass was “the Netflix of games” and I think Netflix wants to be the actual Netflix of games, which means going up against Game Pass.

I still think Oxenfree 2 will launch on Xbox eventually.

I don’t think many people know what an uphill battle is. Jim Ryan should be lucky that he’s under a brand that cannot fail when doing the usual path with some questionable decision like raise price. Phil can’t be like that at all. If you’re going to do similar path as Jim, you will not see progress and honestly and call me cocky, but I’m willing to die on that hill.

Xbox stubborness about owning IPs annoys me.

Limiting the brand because of stubbornness.

These are two of the most stupid things Xbox has done.

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The first one maybe, the second I disagree. I love Kotor but where is the game ? Microsoft didn’t trust the developer and now it’s getting a reboot at a new developer.

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They let Insomniac keep the Sunset Overdrive IP and lo and behold, they lost it to Sony.

The Spider-Man thing was so long ago it almost doesn’t matter. What team was going to make that game? It didn’t make sense and it only looks bad in hindsight. The success of Insomniac Spider-Man was not a given before that game.

As for KOTOR, I sort of agree that it’s a bad look, but we saw what happened with Aspyr. Microsoft may have foreseen what was going to happen.

Personally, the last thing I want is Xbox wasting a first party team on a Marvel game. There’s already enough Marvel games being made in the industry.

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Everything changes next week when the CMA authorizes the Activision deal.

COD will be… a first party Xbox game. That’s big.

Sony have their own problems. I’m willing to bet their cinematic AAA genre will be perceived as stale in a few years, if not already. Gaming is cyclical with its popular likes & dislikes, along with types of games going out of fashion when publishers least expect it (& after sinking millions upon millions into projects).

Wait & see. But the typical Sony “walk, talk, collect, hide in grass, shoot, loot, climb” gameplay loop with really expensive production values (& AI companions holding the player’s hand at all times) won’t be eternally loved. That’s my own little hill I’m willing to die on.

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I feel like the Kotor thing went like this:

“Hey xbox, want kotor timed exclusivety?”

“Sure, put it on game pass.”

“No, only timed exclusivety.”

“In that case, no.”

“Sony, do you want timed exclusivety?”

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“Hey Xbox, want KOTOR timed exclusivity?”

“Sure, who’s the developer?”

“Aspyr.”

“Who?”

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Even so, letting a previous Xbox exclusive and ip go because you don’t trust the developer is bad imo. Spider-Man is ridiculous. Do they know how big Spider-Man is.

Think about the PlayStation brand today without Spider-Man lol. Would be no where near as strong.

So we’re back to “Game Pass or get out?” You do realize how many games won’t be on the platform, right?

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There was no reason insomniac couldn’t have made it for Xbox. They weren’t purchased by Sony until 2019.

They could have, but they also might not have. They were busy with Sunset. Who knows what could have happened.

Spider-Man games were not what they are now back then. Like I said, hindsight is easy.

People would clown on Microsoft because of the reboot and change of developer. It was a good move not to waste money on Kotor.

And the Spiderman deal was offered when Microsoft had like 4-5 studios and the future of Xbox was in question.

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This was back when Xbox had only a few major studios - doing this in house back then would have meant cancelling one of their own major tentpoles to focus on someone elses IP. Plus we’re all looking at this on the basis of how well Insomniac has handled Spiderman after the fact but that was far from guaranteed - between licensed properties and superhero games there was a lot of subpar games and not the same shining example of success. I mean just look at the last few Spiderman games under Activision - THAT is what Microsoft were judging by at the time.

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They should have been judging with Arkham games. Cmon I doubt they were looking at the activision lot.