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Phil Spencer: "I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio, to add [to our studios]"

CyberPanda

Banned
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, head of Xbox Phil Spencer admits that the spending spree is by no means over. The strategy will be familiar to anyone who has followed the Netflix story. The TV streaming platform reportedly spent between $12 and $13 billion on content last year, and that number is expected to rise this year.

"I think it would be nice if we found an Asian studio, in particular a Japanese studio, to add [to our studios]. I liked it when we had some first-party capability in Japan. We have a small team there, but I think we can do more."

You can look at our P&L of our company; we're not spending $12 billion on video games today, but as the subscriptions grow and reach more customers, I do think it's important for us to continue to invest in content. It's not every year that we'll add seven new studios, but I do think us looking at specific targets that we need is important."

 
Could have helped out Valhalla while they suffered and mortgaged their houses to finish Devil's Third. If they had any help they'd be a Platinum Games rival right now. Multiple top Team Ninja and Sega fighting games people were there and THQ collapsing destroyed them. And Itagaki was the most loyal xbox dev in Japan.
 
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FStubbs

Member
Could have helped out Valhalla while they suffered and mortgaged their houses to finish Devil's Third. If they had any help they'd be a Platinum Games rival right now. Multiple top Team Ninja and Sega fighting games people were there and THQ collapsing destroyed them. And Itagaki was the most loyal xbox dev in Japan.

Sakaguchi was playing ball with them too.
 

CyberPanda

Banned
Shameless.
Was it shameless when Sony bought Naughty Dog?
Was it shameless when Nintendo bought Monolith Soft?

This is a business, and these companies want our money. They will do whatever it takes to get the most customers possible, and will buy whoever they see fit to increase their user base, and gaming libraries.

Could have helped out Valhalla while they suffered and mortgaged their houses to finish Devil's Third. If they had any help they'd be a Platinum Games rival right now. Multiple top Team Ninja and Sega fighting games people were there and THQ collapsing destroyed them. And Itagaki was the most loyal xbox dev in Japan.

Instead of funding Scalebound, they could have made Itagaki a studio, and he could've made a AAA game instead of the crap that was Devil's Third. He was a great asset at Team Ninja, and when he left they went downhill. I know Devil's Third wasn't a good game, but they were suffering financially like you said.

私たちはxboxをブランドとして尊重しません。

You just copied and pasted this from Google translate didn't you?

Sakaguchi was playing ball with them too.

Now he's making mobile games I think.
 
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kiiltz

Member
Sweet. Pick up all the VN's and Eroges while you're at it too and don't hold back. Make anime great again.
 

DanielsM

Banned
I had a dream... Microsoft buys FromSoftware and makes them put an easy mode in all their games.

or is that a nightmare?

P.S. Phil, I think it would be nice if you fixed the fucking Games for Window Live Store for the poor saps that got sucked in yet again, you know instead of releasing (re-releasing or whatever they got now) like the 16th xbox client. And tell Nadella Microsoft should be issuing a notice to all those poor UWP developer sap, best practice is just to rip the band-aid off all in one go.
 
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Porcile

Member
That sounds like a nice way to fuck up a studio, Phil. Xbox has no relevence at all in Japan. Only a desperate company would be crazy enough to sell themselves to make exclusive products for Microsoft. That would screw themselves out of an entire market, and their home market too at that.
 

Porcile

Member
The 360 also had great JRPG titles outside of arcade

Except those RPGs had no long term benefits for Microsofts presence in Japan, and no long term benefits for the companies who made them, assuming we are talking about Mistwalker.
 

Mista

Banned
Except those RPGs had no long term benefits for Microsofts presence in Japan, and no long term benefits for the companies who made them, assuming we are talking about Mistwalker.
True, thats why I want the relationship back. Especially after Xbox new direction which is caring about SP games
 
giphy.gif
 

luminaire28

Neo Member
This kind of thing is exactly what i feared when MS first entered the console market. They have been buying up devs over the past year, devs that were before that third party and made games for all platforms for the most part. It would've been different if it were devs that were known for working mostly with them.
 

tryDEATH

Member
I am not sure how it would be perceived being bough out by a Western company.

Either start another Initiative studio of respected developers that are spread across smaller studios, or just acquire a few smaller studios that merge and are rebranded as a brand new studio with the licenses of those studio's past work under one roof. Just establishing themselves could play a big role, because if Xbox ends up being fully committed to investing into games there is plenty of quality talent there to be recruited quite easily.
 
Could have helped out Valhalla while they suffered and mortgaged their houses to finish Devil's Third. If they had any help they'd be a Platinum Games rival right now. Multiple top Team Ninja and Sega fighting games people were there and THQ collapsing destroyed them. And Itagaki was the most loyal xbox dev in Japan.

Remember when they got Treasure to make a 360 exclusive for them and then cancelled it midway through development :messenger_pensive::messenger_pensive: Treasure never recovered it from it.

I heard a second hand rumor a long time ago that it was freaking amazing to and was going to be Treasures magnum opus.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Here is the issue, the core audience for Japanese games are Japanese gamers but If Xbox doesn't sell well over there why should Japanese developers make games for that system?
 

CyberPanda

Banned
This kind of thing is exactly what i feared when MS first entered the console market. They have been buying up devs over the past year, devs that were before that third party and made games for all platforms for the most part. It would've been different if it were devs that were known for working mostly with them.

They’re trying to check those boxes. Now it’s the “ACQUIRE ASIAN STUDIO” box.
Sony is planning to buy more developers too btw.


Al these companies want to check boxes.

Buy Konami, do a castlevania and a silent hill, and and a parodius !
I don't think they will buy a big publisher.
 
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Remember all the Naughty Dog games not on Sony platforms? Remember all the Monolith Soft games not on nintendo platforms? Me either.

Naughty Dog did make games for non-Sony platforms.

Remember when they got Treasure to make a 360 exclusive for them and then cancelled it midway through development :messenger_pensive::messenger_pensive: Treasure never recovered it from it.

I heard a second hand rumor a long time ago that it was freaking amazing to and was going to be Treasures magnum opus.

What was the game?
 

HeresJohnny

Member
Sony is planning to buy more developers too btw.


Al these companies want to check boxes.


I don't think they will buy a big publisher.
I suppose. I'm not a fan of Sony doing it, either. But I do feel that their acquisitions seem more organic than MS' do. It just seems like a bunch of guys who know very little about games come up with their master plan and it goes something like: Power/Whatever is hot/Buy developers (need token Japanese dev house too)/ flail controller/"Future of gaming" = WIN.

I'm kinda hard on them, because they had something really good going with the 360, and they've fallen so far from that. But even during those days, it all felt very formulaic, like they thought leading the market would simply involve mixing all the right ingredients together, like baking a cake. Although I suppose if some of these acquisitions turn out awesome games they'll look like geniuses. But I don't think Sony or MS are going to be made or broken by these acquisitions, there are so many more variables (for example, I think they're both about to make horrible pricing mistakes and are both going to pay dearly for it when they release hardware next year).
 

HeresJohnny

Member
Shitty PC games nobody cares about, a 3DO game that nobody played and the one game with the nude code which is why anybody has even heard of it. Remember any of them?
LOL Way of the Warrior was like a troll's wet dream if wet dreams were games. It was so magnificently awful. I bought a 3D0 and heard the White Zombie song and was like "FUCK YEAH IT HAS WHITE ZOMBIE!!!" Twenty plays later and I was like "this game is fucking horrible and I hate White Zombie now."
 
Naughty Dog did make games for non-Sony platforms.



What was the game?

I don't think the name was ever revealed to the public, I wanna say it was actually revealed at some press event that Treasure was working on a 360 exclusive title. I remember them mentioning it once. I wanna say it was around TGS when they announced the Radiant Silvergun XBLA port.

Then we heard nothing and there were articles that came out that said MS pulled it's funding when it was halfway done and cancelled it. It was a long time ago so I'm having trouble finding anything on it.

It was supposed to be a Treasure shooter game but I have no clue if it was supposed to be a vertical or horizontal schmup or whatever. This all happened when MS made that initial push to get Japanese content on the 360 with Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery and Blue Dragon. The Treasure game was supposed to diversify their portfolio for the system to raise appeal for the system in Japan before they gave up.
 
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Dabaus

Banned
I’ve noticed a trend that Xbox gamers wanting Japanese games is more about spiting PlayStation than actually buying the software. The reason the internet would break if ms bought someone like from or platinum is because nobody who actually cares about those studio houses would want that to happen. It wouldn’t change Xbox’s fortunes in japan and it would permanently destroy whatever good will those studios had because they willingly decided to alienate 90 percent of their audience. It’s a 2 way street, do Japanese devs want to be ignored at home and maybe get noticed on gamepass after their game bombs and sells 50k on an npd chart in the US? That’s a pretty big gamble when you could just stick with Sony and Nintendo where your audience is.
 
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oldergamer

Member
They should by capcom. That would be the best possible purchase. They also have a good north american presence and good ip.
 
Remember all the Naughty Dog games not on Sony platforms? Remember all the Monolith Soft games not on nintendo platforms? Me either.
Given Xenosaga Episode 1 is there second best selling game after Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I'm going to say people do. That's true about Naughty Dog though.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Valhalla Studios
Grounding
White Owls
Ys Net
Have a Japanese publication division (which they are already going to do) to fund Experience, Arzest, Treasure, Mages and Tokyologic.
And Phil is all set.
Also, calm down everyone. Microsoft doess not like going after big successful names, they go after smaller ones and will nurture it themselves.
 
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