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[SlimySnake]

I think they were both in development before the acquisition so there was no sense in canceling them. Whatever Arkane does next will be their first game fully under the Xbox umbrella. Same for Hellblade 2 and Ninja Theory.

MS acquired Arkhane in 2020. Thats 3 years. Maybe 2.5 years of dev time that couldve been better spent on something else.

Bleeding Edge had one full year of dev time after they acquired NT. Imagine if Hellblade 2 got that extra year of dev time. It would release a full year earlier than whenever it is releasing now.

Sometimes its best to kill shitty products even if they are 3 years into development. Thats why the execs get paid the big bucks. They dont make the games but they need to be able to discern trash early on.

 

[TrueLegend]

Do you know that every exclusive of PS5 launched on PC is simply a benchmark for PC graphics. From Horizon Dawn to The last of Part 1 i can tell you that they are best game launched on PC apart from port, which has issues and Sony is trying to sort it out. But to be fair Sony port on PC are best, which utlizies every part of PC hardware, which tell how dedicated they are towards their development.

Bro, what are you even saying, on PC we literally have games like Portal RTX and Cyberpunk 2077 for benchmarking, if those ports were good I would have given you points for saying benchmark for playing if you said that, but they are not and I own every PS release and Days Gone was the best port. We have Metro Exodus in full RT glory too. And Do you know the real benchmark that passes all these if you are thinking 'Yeah keep saying RT show me a game that does it better than God of War' well guess what we have one it's called 'Red Dead Redemption on Ultra 4K' the true ultimate benchmark of gaming that uses everything and runs on two distinctly different core apis i.e. DX12 and Vulcun and goes above and beyond any game ever and I haven't even used 8K RTGI injected reshade modding. So get out of your bubble. PS games are not benchmark. They look great but we have bigger titans on PC that can bring a godly GPU with literal 100 teraflops on knees.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I kind of agree OP. Replace most of them....just promote Sarah Bond please...she's kinda awesome I think.

 

[bender]

Bro, what are you even saying, on PC we literally have games like Portal RTX and Cyberpunk 2077 for benchmarking, if those ports were good I would have given you points for saying benchmark for playing if you said that, but they are not and I own every PS release and Days Gone was the best port. We have Metro Exodus in full RT glory too. And Do you know the real benchmark that passes all these if you are thinking 'Yeah keep saying RT show me a game that does it better than God of War' well guess what we have one it's called 'Red Dead Redemption on Ultra 4K' the true ultimate benchmark of gaming that uses everything and runs on two distinctly different core apis i.e. DX12 and Vulcun and goes above and beyond any game ever and I haven't even used 8K RTGI injected reshade modding. So get out of your bubble. PS games are not benchmark. They look great but we have bigger titans on PC that can bring a godly GPU with literal 100 teraflops on knees.

Moose Life which is the real benchmark for graphics.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

I have been defending Phill for years, but if we reach the end of 2024 and XB is still in the same situation, then it is time for him to go.

Playstation even with their success promotes and downgrades roles accordingly with little hesitation.

 

[Del_X]

Starfield will have, what, a 7 or 8 year dev cycle? I’d be shocked if it comes out more broken than Skyrim at launch (after 76).

Forza has sure as hell taken a long time to make but looks really good.

I dunno, I’m just not feeling the “doom” but I also play on PC and game pass seems to have enough titles to justify the expense.

 

[Desprado123]

Playstation even with their success promotes and downgrades roles accordingly with little hesitation.

Even santa monica studio lay off many staff after GOW 3 on PS3. I am sure Change will be blessing for Xbox in long term.

 

[Daneel Elijah]

Console war baiting: the thread. MS have a lot of game in pipeline.

The fact that they have games in the pipeline is not the problem. Their delays and the fact that some of those games end up disappointing like Halo Infinite are. Buying Zenimax helped them. But outside of it they did not have that much games. And a lot of them are still in developement hell. We will see in their next showcase what is happening to those games. But unlike Sony, who had launched almost all of their games shown in the 2020 showcase, Microsoft did not. This is a management issue. We got a lot of CG reveals because they were not as ready as they should be to this generation. And some of their games will come on 2024 or 2025 when they should have come sooner. I do not like when people are named with scorn or mockery. And do not want for anybody to be fired. But something has to change because right now the Xbox brand is not seen in the best light.
I understand if you do not feel that way. But some of us do. And I would like for you to push what they have accomplished instead of just dismissing this as a console war thread. I think that High on Life is a good example of a game that worked out well because of Gamepass, and proves that Xbox have advantages of their own to rival what happened on PS+ with Fall guys. Maybe there is other good news that we did not see. I admit that for example I did not see how much of a phenomenon Sea of thieves was until I saw the meme.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Yeah, we know, but do they ?

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

 

[geary]

"Tell me you know nothing about corporate management without telling me you know nothing about corporate management" - The Thread.

 

[quest]

MS acquired Arkhane in 2020. Thats 3 years. Maybe 2.5 years of dev time that couldve been better spent on something else.

Bleeding Edge had one full year of dev time after they acquired NT. Imagine if Hellblade 2 got that extra year of dev time. It would release a full year earlier than whenever it is releasing now.

Sometimes its best to kill shitty products even if they are 3 years into development. Thats why the execs get paid the big bucks. They dont make the games but they need to be able to discern trash early on.

The deal closed in 2021 it was 4 years into development. Cancel it and waste 4 years and listen to the scalebound like crying and no games. Or let the studio finish it and move on.

Microsoft completes Bethesda acquisition, promises some Xbox and PC exclusives

Microsoft’s first-party studios list jumps to 23 with this deal.

www.theverge.com

 

[skyfall]

Everyone needs to have more patience, SeriesX is the smoothing out phase with the new acquisitions. Wait for the next gen Xbox for the great games to be rolling out consistently.

 

[poppabk]

I'd rather they carry on as they have been - throwing money at stuff that neither Sony or Nintendo would touch and putting it and a bunch of other stuff on a $10 a month subscription service. Flight Sim is amazing, AoE4 was a solid entry in a what is now a niche genre. I tried out Hi-Fi rush and it was a fun game with some neat ideas.
Only the Forza games really interest me from their mainline franchises, I tried GoW4 and got bored at some ice boat part tracking down signals. I have installed and uninstalled Halo SP more than once without ever launching it.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Everyone needs to have more patience, SeriesX is the smoothing out phase with the new acquisitions. Wait for the next gen Xbox for the great games to be rolling out consistently.

 

[Fredrik]

Is this about Redfall?
I don’t see how what’s happening there has anything to do with Microsoft’s management. It’s not like Matt Booty and Phil Spencer are doing QC for Arkane, Arkane should have people inside telling the coders and artists that the game isn’t as good as it should be.

 

[SteadyEvo]

I think rather than buy the gaming studios MS should now focus on Management change of Xbox from top to bottom.

It is now the perfect time to to reboot the management from top to bottom like MCU did in 2007, and now WB did with DCU.

IMO this is the lowest point of Xbox era that even exclusives are getting worst rating and the management does not get it what really gamers want.


In short, Money cannot buy the passion and dedication.

All I read was the thread title and I completely agree. They need someone from Sony or Nintendo to teach MS about quality and polish.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

"Tell me you know nothing about corporate management without telling me you know nothing about corporate management" - The Tread.

well don’t you stay and keep all that knowledge with you. share with the masses your deep insights.

 

[feynoob]

The deal closed in 2021 it was 4 years into development. Cancel it and waste 4 years and listen to the scalebound like crying and no games. Or let the studio finish it and move on.

http://[URL]https://www.theverge.co...osoft-bethesda-acquisition-complete-finalized

[/URL]

People don't understand that.
They think games are easy to make.

 

[M1chl]

yes

 

[geary]

well don’t you stay and keep all that knowledge with you. share with the masses your deep insights.

Is not about having all the knowledge, but knowing when you speak out of your ass and when you know what are you talking about.
MS has a situation which is bad and is getting worse, but talking about changing top management as you change your socks says a lot about the level of how business work (and not gaming related).

 

[FrankWza]

"Tell me you know nothing about corporate management without telling me you know nothing about corporate management" - The Tread.

Theyre publicly traded, mask their numbers and are owned by a behemoth. They've been out maneuvered by 2 much smaller companies gen after gen and just bungled their one advantage away by getting out-maneuvered by CMA after talking their way into a corner. If anything, they have more leash than any corporate division in the internet era.

 

[ReBurn]

Oh ok I didn't know

 

[semiconscious]

Console war baiting: the thread. MS have a lot of game in pipeline.

when this situation exists in the human digestive tract, it's called 'constipation'...

 

[Kvally]

If they’re all like Redfall then God help us.

Good thing historically they haven't been like Redfall.

 

[systemr123]

Redfall is the new Crackdown 3. It was all gonna be amazing, then gameplay videos show some crappy game but hey, at release the game certainly will be better than this! Only to turn out even worse than the previews .

I don’t know how MS is doing this, but they are seemingly able to ruin about all their franchises and even the ones that are just bought. It takes skill and dedication to fuck up so much that you’d almost think Phil Harrison is in charge.

Somehow he’s not so it keeps being a mystery for now, why MS studios consistently and spectacularly fail with their bigger releases.

 

[LordCBH]

They need to learn how to manage what they have. Adding more will make it even harder to manage. They have EVERYTHING they need, EXCEPT competent leadership.

 

[GHG]

Good thing historically they haven't been like Redfall.

Agreed, publisher of the year 2021, lifetime contract for Phil please.

They are doing an incredible job, really have their finger on the pulse of what gamers want.

 

[Tams]

I honestly don't know why they thought blowing $68.7 billion on ActivisionBlizzard was a good move, even just financially.

Sure Microsoft could afford it, but with even a quarter of that money they could fund development of multiple exclusive AAA games and for several games each to get them into the public's mind. And fund a load of indies too.

And now they have regulators sniffing around them and have even potentially pissed off governments with immature remarks and throwing toys out of the pram. 'Baller' move. I guess some never really do change.

Morons.

Not that I really care though, as Xbox is the only gaming platform I have never played on and have no plan to.

 

[Arsic]

Put Johnny Sins in charge so he can completely fuck this thing into the dirt.

In all seriousness we need to see :

Starfield
Forza
Hellblade 2

These 3 games will tell us what we really need to know about MS and how they helm. To be fair though , Infinite was under current management , and they shit the bed haaaard with that title.

 

[Kvally]

Agreed, publisher of the year 2021, lifetime contract for Phil please.

They are doing an incredible job, really have their finger on the pulse of what gamers want.

Your sarcasm wasn't the hit you would hope it would be.

 

[systemr123]

I honestly don't know why they thought blowing $68.7 billion on ActivisionBlizzard was a good move, even just financially.

Sure Microsoft could afford it, but with even a quarter of that money they could fund development of multiple exclusive AAA games and for several games each to get them into the public's mind. And fund a load of indies too.

Morons.

Not that I really care though, as Xbox is the only gaming platform I have never played on and have no plan to.

Agreed, they could set up 68 1billion dollar studios with that money. Imagine how many great games you can make with all that money and studios if you can attract the talent? Now they tried to get cod and Diablo, wow, for all that money instead. Please MS, please just invest in new studios with great talent. With only 1billion dollar a studio you can make like 3 AAA titles without any return in money before the money is spent.

So let’s see, 68 billion, times 3 AAA with some of the biggest budgets ever, could be 204 AAA titles without any roi to finish the money.

 

[SoraNoKuni]

A lot of people were comparing Phil to a cars salesman, this year I can see why.
I agree with op.

 

[systemr123]

Put Johnny Sins in charge so he can completely fuck this thing into the dirt.

In all seriousness we need to see :

Starfield
Forza
Hellblade 2

These 3 games will tell us what we really need to know about MS and how they helm. To be fair though , Infinite was under current management , and they shit the bed haaaard with that title.

If Starfield doesn’t turn out great, the green side of the pond will say it’s not MSs fault because the game started development as Bethesda. But guess what, it is MSs fault, they’re the boss for a few years now and they can delay, push for improvements etc as much as they’d like. They own Bethesda.

 

[Clear]

Whoever's in charge they are going to be beholden to MS' overall market strategy.

Their business model is heavily based around offering and monetizing cloud integrated services, and so Xbox needs to fit into that stack somewhere or it won't get the funding required.

 

[XesqueVara]

Agreed, they could set up 68 1billion dollar studios with that money. Imagine how many great games you can make with all that money and studios if you can attract the talent? Now they tried to get cod and Diablo, wow, for all that money instead. Please MS, please just invest in new studios with great talent. With only 1billion dollar a studio you can make like 3 AAA titles without any return in money before the money is spent.

So let’s see, 68 billion, times 3 AAA with some of the biggest budgets ever, could be 204 AAA titles without any roi to finish the money.

That's now how it works, just because MS was open to spend 69B on ABK, it don't means that Xbox would have this 69B to spend.

 

[Darsxx82]

MS acquired Arkhane in 2020. Thats 3 years. Maybe 2.5 years of dev time that couldve been better spent on something else.

Sorry but I think I have to make some notes about what you are commenting on even though I could agree if it weren't for those "notes"

The Bethesda-Zenimax agreement was announced in October 2020, but closed in June 2021. It would be less than 2 years under the "control" of MS. And I say "MS control" because in reality Bethesda works independently of XGS (decide his own projects, own director, own advertising...).

Bleeding Edge had one full year of dev time after they acquired NT. Imagine if Hellblade 2 got that extra year of dev time. It would release a full year earlier than whenever it is releasing now.

Bleeding Edge was developed by a very small team of only 9? Devs. I don't think it was the reason for the long development of Hellblade 2.

Hellblade2 long development period has more to do with a lot of reasons:

1-Unlike HB 1, H2 is a AAA project.

2-The studio has had to contract to almost double its size in terms of devs.

3-Change to a new Studio, creation of a Motion Capture Studio... and this in the middle of a pandemic.

4- The most importante for me.The Studio decided to wait for UE5. As we know it is an engine still under development and no games on the market. That has been an important reason.

Sometimes its best to kill shitty products even if they are 3 years into development. Thats why the execs get paid the big bucks. They dont make the games but they need to be able to discern trash early on.

But that is a double-edged sword.

MS would then be blamed for "not leaving creative freedom" to the Studios or for submitting them.

The best option was supposed to be to not participate in Bethesda/Pite Hines decisions as long as they act independently.

The reality in the end is that it will be good or bad depending on the result of the product. But in the case of Redfall I think MS just relied on the Studio and its track record of well-reviewed products.

 

[balls of snow]

They need the man the legend to come back and save this division.

 

[StueyDuck]

They've had more than enough studios for a while now.

It's a shame that console warrior narrative of consolidation = cool took over the discussion.

But this isn't the end for Microsoft consolidation. I don't know why that is the general opinion right now. They were willing to spend 70bil on ABK... its definitely not ending there

 

[NeonGhost]

Phil Spencer just doesn’t have the ability to crack the whip seems like the guy that would rather be a friend of his employee than be their boss

 

[Oddvintagechap]

Is not about having all the knowledge, but knowing when you speak out of your ass and when you know what are you talking about.
MS has a situation which is bad and is getting worse, but talking about changing top management as you change your socks says a lot about the level of how business work (and not gaming related).

Playstation has changed management many times. In fact all PS4 era management is different. People got promotions some got demotions. Xbox management has been there for over a decade, what socks you be wearing a decade?

 

[GHG]

Your sarcasm wasn't the hit you would hope it would be.

What you need to realise is that handwaving what is 100% obvious to the whole industry at this point won't change anything.

P. S. That was a bigger hit than anything the company in question have put out for going on ~18 months now.

 

[Kvally]

What you need to realise is that handwaving what is 100% obvious to the whole industry at this point won't change anything.

P. S. That was a bigger hit than anything the company in question have put out for going on ~18 months now.

Your opinion has been duly noted...

 

[ungalo]

I kind of agree OP. Replace most of them....just promote Sarah Bond please...she's kinda awesome I think.

How is she awesome exactly ? I keep reading/hearing about her being an ideal replacement for Phil without anything to back it up.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The devs they bought were just fully integrated in the last year or 2. So not long enough to see even 1/2 of a full dev cycle. There is not enough data to say they have done good or bad at this point. Reorgs really don't do much besides mint new VPs who are fucking clueless about the details.

What even does that mean? ‘Fully integrated’? You are paid to make games, make games. Which it looks like Microsoft is unable to do.

 

[Darsxx82]

MS can do both.

Buying new studios is not going to affect the success or direction of the ones you already have.

That is On the contrary, not securing more Studios in your portfolio would be more dangerous if the ones you have are having difficulties to perform.

I more believe that people like the OP and others here only express their internal desire that MS stop buying Studios that could affect the status quo of PS and try to decorate it with "MS missmagnagement"

I am clear that, with such a situation, any XBOX user prefers an MS investing in new Studios than one doing nothing

Among other things, because buying Studios means giving the signal to its users and the media that XBOX continues to be a priority and continues with the intention of offering new games as quickly as possible.

 

[ungalo]

MS can do both.

Buying new studios is not going to affect the success or direction of the ones you already have.

That is On the contrary, not securing more Studios in your portfolio would be more dangerous if the ones you have are having difficulties to perform.

I more believe that people like the OP and others here only express their internal desire that MS stop buying Studios that could affect the status quo of PS and try to decorate it with "MS missmagnagement"

I am clear that, with such a situation, any XBOX user prefers an MS investing in new Studios than one doing nothing

I'm a Xbox user. I think in the interest of gaming as a whole they should just stop to fuck everything up.

 

[Tams]

That's now how it works, just because MS was open to spend 69B on ABK, it don't means that Xbox would have this 69B to spend.

Of course most of that deal was to be for buying very profitable IPs in their own right and very little to do with Xbox itself.

But even a fraction if that would have funded multiple AAA games for a decade or more.

Anyone who's been paying attention to Microsoft though, isn't really surprised. Nadella doesn't give much of a fuck about anything but the cloud parts of the company. Well other enterprise parts too. You can see that with the Surface division facing pressure and the low end Microsoft hardware having just gotten the chop, despite no signs either are not profitable (just not anywhere near the likes of Azure).

 

[Lurchio]

I agree I think it's time for Spencer to go,he's no doubt paid a lot of money to do his job and is failing,time and again.

 

[Banjo64]

How is she awesome exactly ? I keep reading/hearing about her being an ideal replacement for Phil without anything to back it up.

she a she/her