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Phil Spencer: "Definitely not done" buying game studios

Ozriel

M$FT
I buy into the theory that 'The Initiative' is a small studio designed to prototype ideas, take external partners for a spin, and see first-hand if they would be a good fit for MS. I would not be surprised if MS picked up Crystal Dynamics before Perfect Dark's launch.

That’s actually what they are.
Phil always said their brief was to make great games in new ways.

The plan was always to get top class talents to conceptualize a game and take it to pre-production stage. Then pull in experienced outsourced talents for the actual production stage.
People thought the Crystal dynamics bit was a ‘gotcha’ for MS but in reality, it was always in the pipeline.
 
Realistically, this should really be the response from anybody in his position as it's the standard corporate response. Your share holders really won't thank you for telling the world that you don't want your company to continue expanding even if you have nothing planned and you end up not making a purchase for the next decade or so.
It's why you get the same response from Sony too, it's the safest response, the most stable response which is why it is very much the corporate standard in situations of this kind.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Maybe Phil manage what you have and show how internally that your OG devs are doing well?

Stop buying IP's because you can't manage teams like 343, rare.
Rare is having tremendous success with SoT at the moment, Turn 10, Playground Games and Coalition are some of the best managed, most efficient devs in the business, Mojang has zero crisis, Ninja Theory and Obsidian devs are happy and thriving.

but keep up the good fight, warrior
 

Papacheeks

Banned
Rare is having tremendous success with SoT at the moment, Turn 10, Playground Games and Coalition are some of the best managed, most efficient devs in the business, Mojang has zero crisis, Ninja Theory and Obsidian devs are happy and thriving.

but keep up the good fight, warrior

maybe know wtf your talking about? Rare has had major internal changes on everwild which saw major lead leave and the project restarted last year.

SOT though great now didn’t launch great. Took them a year to actually have content. Go look at launch.
 
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IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
The year is 2035. All current game studios are now owned by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo or Epic.

Every time a studio is created, and before it's dropped its first game, it instantly starts a war between the four gaming powers as to who will own it.

I also mean a war in the literal sense. All four of the gaming powers control vast, private armies and swathes of land. Millions die each year in the global video game war. A war for subscription numbers. A war that never ends.
 
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The year is 2035. All current game studios are now owned by Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo or Epic.

Every time a studio is created, and before it's dropped its first game, it instantly starts a war between the four gaming powers as to who will own it.

I also mean a war in the literal sense. All four of the gaming powers control vast, private armies and swathes of land. Millions die each year in the global video game war. A war for subscription numbers. A war that never ends.
Starship Troopers GIF
 

Papacheeks

Banned
Rare literally have one of the biggest co-op games on the market and its doing really well, so that already invalidated your statement

It really didn't. Go look up Everwild for me. Go look up Sea of theives in how it launched. Took like over a year to be worth getting into content wise.


It got much better after they actually added content.

But Everwild literally had their lead leave, and restarted project wise from scratch.

So no, it does not invalidate.
 
Yeah. But difference is that Insomniac made Spiderman games that sold 16+ million copies so for Sony it made sense even if they needed to overpay.

But for Kojima? Last time I checked Death Stranding didn't set world on fire... There were also a rumor that Kojima went to Sony with his next game pitch and Sony refused. Then he came after Harrison at Stadia and he refused him and that's why he is now making game for Xbox. That's the rumor at least

We'll have to see what happens. It just fits the pattern of what sony have been doing. They have been tight with kojima for so long and he's literally close friends with a bunch of people at sony like cerny and hermen. If the rumour of death stranding sequel are true, than sony are definitely looking to eventually aquire the studio.
 

DrAspirino

Banned
So if Sony said yes, Bethesda would make a PS5 version of TES6?
Again: according to press, all Bethesda games (and ms games by extension) would be available wherever you can run gamepass (yeah, even fridges). The logic conclusion then is that it's on Sony's and Nintendo's hand the decision whether they want to have a gamepass app on their systems or not.

Of course it would be awesome if Nintendo and Sony allow for a Gamepass app on their system, since we could have true crossplay and cross compatibility, regardless of a plastic box.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
maybe know wtf your talking about? Rare has had major internal changes on everwild which saw major lead leave and the project restarted last year.

SOT though great now didn’t launch great. Took them a year to actually have content. Go look at launch.

Nobody cares about that. New IP always comes with challenges. Nothing there to point to ‘mismanagement’.
Sea of Thieves launched as a live service game, with promise of an evolving world. However they launched, they’ve certainly fully lived up to their promises and turned the game into a significant success story.

Would you also say Polyphony Digital were mismanaged because GT Sport launched with a fraction of the content of regular mainline
 

Papacheeks

Banned
Nobody cares about that. New IP always comes with challenges. Nothing there to point to ‘mismanagement’.
Sea of Thieves launched as a live service game, with promise of an evolving world. However they launched, they’ve certainly fully lived up to their promises and turned the game into a significant success story.

Would you also say Polyphony Digital were mismanaged because GT Sport launched with a fraction of the content of regular mainline

Yes its been known for a while out of all Sony's studios Poly is the most mis-managed because of developer team being in Japan.
 
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