Xbox Game Studios |OT12| The One with Starfield and Activision Blizzard King

[Phantom]

Meanwhile, at Blizzard

[vrg (The Great Circle?)]

If EA drops the ball again, MS should turn CoD into a Battlefield clone.

[Zappy5]

@Resist

Can honestly see Activision maintaining like 20k employees to release yearly COD/COD Mobile/Warzone (if it keeps making as much money as it usually does) while having about 1.5 employees work on other projects (Crash, Spyro, etc.). Wouldn’t this be the best compromise?

In an absolutely ideal world yes. Whether MS see that as sensible I don’t know but certainly would be best.

The gamer bubble of ‘I don’t like the highest revenue generating game in existence so I want them to stop making it’ does astound me though.

[peter42O]

@OD62

Now they’re going to need more studios to develop their huge IP lol

Studios without a major IP like Avalanche, People Can Fly, Asobo, Certain Affinity, Iron Galaxy, Behavior… would probably be happy to work with the Xbox IP. Maybe Microsoft will now move towards talent acquisition?

I’m glad Beenox opened a new studio. This is what I expect from this acquisition. See Toys 4 Bob, Beenox, High Moon and Raven, bring back Prototype, True Crime, Gun, Hexen, Spyro, Crash, Guitar Hero…

I agree and hope Microsoft buys several studios in 2024. I also want to see them increase the employee count at all of the Activision studios so they can have the main ones still doing COD annually if that’s what it stays as while the other studios will be able to develop other games.

One thing I want for sure and that’s to see these other studios NOT be stuck working on COD forever.

[Sparda3g]

https://x.com/klobrille/status/1714304815616917506?s=20

Crazy time.

[Daniel]

@Zappy5

Where is it in the U.K. out of interest? I don’t even know how to check.

I guess a genre that isn’t popular in North America probably does get a bit ignored generally…I mean it’s not like the major podcasts or outlets will discuss a game like FM after the initial week because it’s a genre for particular enthusiasts. Horizon broke through because clearly it made the racing genre massively accessible and fun to a wide audience.

FM though I think does an outstanding job of helping people understand track racing and for me is quite accessible. It’s just that many wont get that far to try it.

I looked at just a few, Italy, Netherlands and France all in the top #4 I’d assume Germany is up there as well. All these countries are into racing especially places like The UK/Italy/Germany.

[Shadowgasm]

I don’t think we’ll see an end to the yearly CoD release. Just like Madden, the EA footyball game formerly known as Fifa and NBA2K, CoD is an “event” that millions of gamers look forward to every year. Whether the game is actually good or not doesn’t seem to matter to the masses of gamers and dude-bros that get the game to play with their friends/crews. Trying to break from that presents a risk that those same gamers might find themselves wandering to other games in those off years. Add on the loss of yearly revenue from the actual sale of the game, and you can see a scenario that might scare MS away from trying it.

As many others have alluded to, I think the ideal solution would be for MS/ABK to continue hiring developers and/or acquiring support studios to support the CoD machine which could free up some of their current studios to work on reviving some of the other ABK IP.

We’ll see what happens I guess.

[Phantom]

Mojang hosted XGS Production Summit last month

[Staffy]

Wonder when we’re gonna hear or see more about the CoD RPG. Assuming that’s still a thing.

Or hold on, was it a CoD RPG or a RPG by that studio?

[strawman]

@Staffy

Wonder when we’re gonna hear or see more about the CoD RPG. Assuming that’s still a thing.

Or hold on, was it a CoD RPG or a RPG by that studio?

Infinity Ward Warsaw has some a job listing for an RPG designer or somethinglike that. Make of it what you will.

[DoctorFaustus]

Phil Spencer on Activision Blizzard King + Xbox | Official Xbox Podcast

[Granjinha]

Halo Infinite just hit 18k concurrent players on Steam and is still climbing. Pretty dope reception for S5 (which is fantastic). Happy for 343.

[AllianceOfficer]

Other studios see all the IP and want to bring them back for Xbox

https://twitter.com/SVKaiser/status/1714469739756445852?t=WQ6q8R4SoZh7jIcz-NkZKw&s=19

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@Granjinha

Halo Infinite just hit 18k concurrent players on Steam and is still climbing. Pretty dope reception for S5 (which is fantastic). Happy for 343.

I stopped playing in S3 and now I got instantly obliterated in most matches But halo as never been this fun to play in years!

Those changes in the studio werw for the good.

[MJ_INC]

@peter42O

… imagine it costing less than MW3 which is $70. Also, how much does Game Pass Ultimate cost in your country for a year? Buying the game would be cheaper until you add in the monthly fee to play online which is why I think it gets added to Game Pass starting next year day one and for next gen, will be a platform because in 5 years from now, im expecting Game Pass to be around or above 100m subscribers so Microsoft would prefer this way instead of selling you a game every year. Also, since they have a 10 year deal with Sony, Nintendo, etc., unless it states that they need to release a native version yearly which I highly doubt, it would easier development wise to just do one massive game in 2028 and then add to it every quarter/season with additional content and a massive expansion every year.

Converted to dollars gamepass ultimate is just under $7 a month and that’s just getting it month to month. If you do the 3 years of core to 2 years of ultimate it works out to $4 a month. The physical copies of modern warfare 3 are selling for $95 here. I will say the digital versions are cheaper at ‘only’ $74.

[jasheeldz]

@Granjinha

Halo Infinite just hit 18k concurrent players on Steam and is still climbing. Pretty dope reception for S5 (which is fantastic). Happy for 343.

Never ever count an Xbox Game Studio’s live service game as down and out.

[Sparda3g]

https://x.com/matpiscatella/status/1714316034885525543?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

[Sparda3g]

https://x.com/seaofthieves/status/1714597252629475584?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ

October: The Month of Xbox Update

[mrbobman15 (Giorgio)]

so sad knowing we probably won’t see a new phantom dust game for a long time. I got a feeling one day there will be a remaster or a reboot though, it’s well liked inside Xbox Game Studios publishing.

[morventhus]

@mrbobman15

so sad knowing we probably won’t see a new phantom dust game for a long time. I got a feeling one day there will be a remaster or a reboot though, it’s well liked inside Xbox Game Studios publishing.

Well we did do a small budget remaster for the Xbox one… I love the game and hope for a sequel