I mean… That’s just how it is. Who’s out here caring about the best RTS right now… Or the best fighting game. It’s just the way it is. Note when I mean respect, it’s only amongst this vocal minority. In reality, meh.
Promising stuff on all sides. Honestly I’m excited for the xbox future.
Halo will take me through 2021! Part of a Halo discord and plenty to play with 
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It is going to be interesting to see how state of the art visuals from both companies compares.
if we talk about Acquisition then these studios are great
Stalker Studio (GSC Game World)
Bloober Team
Asobo Studio
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Their return to RPGs is what will bring back a huge chunk of their original fan base I’m sure of it.
Their teams still need more growth but are in a serious position of strength for next gen.
Times change. Used to be platformers that were the showcase titles, then fighters, etc. Now it’s the AAA shooters or action games. I agree that racers should be included but I think gamers have kind of grown used to racers looking so good, so it’s kind of expected now.
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I agree that they have a very diverse portfolio, but I think where they are lacking is in the story driven 3rd person games. The type of games that PS routinely gets accolades for.
GaaS, multi player, indie, MS is very strong, outside that not so much. I suspect that is a major reason why the initiative was formed. I think MS needs to focus on adding a few more of those signature type of games to their 1st party portfolio. Fable & Avowed are a good start, curious to see what InXile & Initiative have in store.
Love to see them revive Ryse or Perfect Dark (rumored) or go after some studios with intriguing IP (Asobo, People Can Fly, Remedy).
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I always felt Quantum Break got short shrift upon release. Never beat Control but it sure seemed to me like QB was the better game to me personally. I recall Jeff Gerstmann playing QB for review and his criticisms were legit nonsense.
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Ppl used to whine about Xbox having too much focus on shooters. It’s weird since nobody complains about every major Sony 1st party game being a third person action game. I think MS will really shine with rpg’s in a few yrs too.
I do agree that I would love seeing more focus from MS on these kind of titles though to flesh out their offerings even more. The Initiative, Coalition, Ninja Theory, maybe Compulsion could all output major third person games. Asobo too as ya pointed out. And Bloober might be good for them to cultivate with funding as well. RYSE 2 could have potential. Hell Everwild is 3rd person adventure game by the looks of it, so there really is a lot of room for growth here now that I write it all down.
Never understood why MS didn’t pursue Alan Wake 2 or Quantum Break 2. They can afford the $$$ regardless of sales. These seem especially good fits for GP too imho. As ‘Ed’ noted on the podcast, ya gotta build a wide, strong base in the genres to attract attention for fans of the genres.
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I really cannot wait to see more from Everwild. It’s easily the announced game I find the most interesting. Rare finally is getting to spread their creative wings again after helping with Kinect for years and it’s great to see.
Going to look even better when they announce Perfect Dark, Gears Infinite, a Sci-fi RPG by inxile, and Forza Horizon 5. Then turn around and announce new acquisitions 
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Everwild Yes, I am really intrigued by that game as well, just like to know what it is though?
Awesome image! =D
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People (thankfully a minority) seem to have a pre-conditioned biased that an AAA level game has to be something like what Sony produces aka cinematic, over the shoulder camera games.
Are we going to deny Animal Crossing as an AAA game or Fire Emblem Fates?
Flight Simulator and Age of Empires 4 are both probably insanely expensive games to make, are they not AAA status?
Is Diablo 4 not AAA?
I would consider Apex to be an AAA game despite being free to play solely because its a game that probably took a lot of time and money to make and has fairly high production values.
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I honestly dislike the term "narrative driven " when it comes to games. Always makes me think gameplay will be secondary or an afterthought at worst.
One of the best games this gen in my opinion was State of Decay 2. Had one of the most addictive gameplay loops of anything I’ve played. But boy did it get shit on, which rubbed me the wrong way.
There was an instance where a character I had been building up since the beginning of the game, done countless dangerous supply runs with ended up getting killed, running an errand for one of the other enclaves. I didn’t prepare well and ran out without back up and ended up losing the character because of it.
Losing that character was way more of a gut punch than a game’s writer deciding a certain character should be killed off for the sake of the narrative. She died as a direct result of my actions in a game with permadeath.
I honestly can’t wait for SOD3, and I hope it has all the graphical splendor and polish of a AAA, but doesn’t give up what makes it so compelling to play in favor of being "narrative driven ".
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The line up is really great i agree. We still don’t know everything they have in store. I feel like it’s going up from here.
I think the whole Xbox is just Forza/Halo/Gears talk point will evaporate next gen, you could argue it’s already starting with stuff like Everwild/SoT/Avowed/ToW/Hellblade and I’m sure there’ll be new IP coming we don’t know about.
Totally agree. I loved QB and have played through it multiple times. Not to take anything away from Control since I thought that was fantastic too. It’s too bad that QB launched during the XBO’s dark days since I think it would have been much better received if it launched with or after the 1X. Too bad we’ll probably never get a sequel.
I also agree on the reviews. I remember Angry Joe reviewing it as a cover based shooter when that is the opposite of what it is. Yes it does have some loose cover mechanics but the core of the mechanics are constant movement as you swap between the multiple powers.
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I’m a big Xbox person and I’ve always loved Remedy, but man, Quantum Break fell totally flat for me. Those live-action cutscenes were so, so cheesy. I just couldn’t get past them. The gameplay was fun but I liked pretty much everything about Control better than QB.
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Yeah but…it’s Remedy! 
I went in presuming it was gonna be a bit campy in some parts since that is how Sam Lake writes all of his games. Loved QB’s story too.
Exactly! They went out of their way to use cover differently than other games and it was really compelling imho. Ya use em to plan out your attack and then execute that, which always felt amazing and fast and fun to me. It was never really treated like a mechanic to let ppl hide for more than a couple seconds but reviewers played it like it was. I feel like its reception was severely tainted by attitudes towards X1 at the time. Same with RYSE, which now ppl want a sequel for. I do too, but it was always a real solid game/concept.
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