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[Poll] Can Microsoft afford to hold back from showing all their big games in their July event?

Can Microsoft afford to hold back from showing all their big games in their July event?

  • Yes they can afford to not show all their big games

    Votes: 96 40.2%
  • No they have to show all their big games

    Votes: 143 59.8%

  • Total voters
    239

sublimit

Banned
In my opinion they need to go big and show everything they have in terms of exclusives in order to really impress and win the trust of those gamers who have been undecided about MS's future plans.

They have underdelivered so many times in recent years on their promises to show big and interesting exclusives that i think for a lot of gamers their July show will be their last chance to really make some noise and win the "war" of impressions.
 
In my opinion they need to go big and show everything they have in terms of exclusives in order to really impress and win the trust of those gamers who have been undecided about MS's future plans.

They have underdelivered so many times in recent years on their promises to show big and interesting exclusives that i think for a lot of gamers their July show will be their last chance to really make some noise and win the "war" of impressions.
That would be very stupid they need to show people a solid launch line up and a few things to come not blow their whole load. Then people will move to goal post to when are they going to show anything new that we haven’t seen because they showed everything they’re working on damned if they do damned if they don’t.
 

Stuart360

Member
I suppose it depends how good the games like Halo are. I mean Just showing Halo, Fable, maybe Hellblade 2, Forza, and a couple of others would be fine for me. I think i'd rather have fewer games with more time showing them, if you know what i mean. I dont need to see 10 AAA games and 20 AA/Indie games in 1 hour. They did say they would be doing an event every month after this July event.
 

Ellery

Member
I hate to say and I really really really don't want to offend anyone by this, but even a presentation of all first party games Microsoft has released in the last 7 years bundled in one event would be a disappointment.

BUT times are different now and I think Microsoft should fire as hard as they can with everything they got and then some. They have to be aggressive in every possible way including price, release date, consumer friendliness etc.

A lot of the success of the Xbox Series X is (imho) going to be the price and how good Halo Infinite is. Halo infinite can't be a 7.5/10 good looking game. It needs to be so good that it actually is a GOTY title contendet this year.
If Microsoft believes in the game then we will see a big 10+ minute gameplay demonstration next week.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
They've been making really good waves, but they still need to deliver the goods. Studio acquisitions mean jack shit if the resulting games are no good.

That doesn't mean they should show everything though. Companies are getting very wise to the fact that you can't unring those bells. Sony's E3s got worse and worse until they stopped, due to mostly showing the same handful of games over and over. Bethesda very stupidly "announced" TES6 in 2018, a game which won't be ready for many more years, and now all everyone will ask every year is "no TES?". Wondering why Nintendo are very quiet at the moment? It's not just COVID, Animal Crossing is keeping everyone busy.

Show us stuff that's ready in the next year or so, keep some stuff hush hush.
 
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dorkimoe

Member
If you have it, show it. I used to think people show games way too early...and they do...but apparently nobody else seems to care. Sony shows first party games way early, microsoft needs to just show everything no matter how far it is in development. Just knowing a game exists (FABLE) can help someone who is on the fence
 

JimiNutz

Banned
I think they can maybe afford to hold some stuff back, especially games that aren't releasing anytime soon.

They do need to have a big showing for the games that are releasing within the first 12 months of the console launch. They shouldn't hold any of those games back for a later show in my opinion.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
They'll show the big hitters (Halo, FM, Fable, Hellblade II), think they'll announce release dates if any of those are at launch and have one teaser. They already know Sony have another event and I think they are genuinely trying to wait them out at this point. So I think they will keep a couple of surprises back to respond to Sony's event and then close it off.
 

splattered

Member
Lets be honest. You don't want MS to hold back in the hopes that Sony has something amazing to retaliate with in August that will overshadow the July MS showing.

MS can afford to do whatever they want.

They have great momentum right now and as long as they don't flub up the July event it will only continue to accelerate.

That being said if they do flub and had held back some games it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference either way.. so why not hold some fun stuff back for a later showing?
 

Stuart360

Member
Also, and i dont know if its still in effect, they have that rule where they wont show a game that is more than a year away from release, or something like that.
 

Three

Member
Also, and i dont know if its still in effect, they have that rule where they wont show a game that is more than a year away from release, or something like that.
When did that rule come into effect to begin with? Because both Halo Infinite and Crackdown 3 say hi.
 
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If they don't, then I genuinely don't think they know what they're doing or what they want to achieve.

They go all out with the absolute top of the line, beastly specced systems, then they also make a low budget, low power, bargain bin little haemonculus console that the same games have to be able to run on too.

They say they don't believe in generations, yet release 2 next gen systems, then say all games will run on XO, but that after a year they apparently won't because presumably a year is how long it takes for belief in generations to develop.

They buy up studio, after studio, after studio for the Xbox brand, yet had a whole generation spent mismanaging the studios they already had, churning out underwhelming sequels and soulless average titles.

Pus, they've promised to release all their games day and date on PC, so all these games theyve paid millions for to sell their brand and hardware are going to be available elsewhere on objectively better systems. What's more, thanks to the aforementioned Series S haemonculus, those games are going to be able to run without problem on lower spec, and thus lower cost, PC's without any difficulty.

Sony make artsy fartsy, story and concept driven titles, and hardware catering to a teen to adult, worldwide audience.

Nintendo make fun games for kids and the young at heart, focused on Asia and the US, but are broadly successful everywhere.

MS, I just don't know what the fuck they're doing. I'm pretty sure they don't either, but at least showing a load of amazing games would justify the fortune that has been poured into the Xbox brand in the last decade. It would be nice if that also gave some hint that they weren't just flailing wildly in the money pit anymore, but I'll take just any titles genuinely worth the expenditure put into them at this point.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Yeah, they can afford it.

Halo Infinite will be the biggest exclusive game in some time. It's going to be bonkers popular this holiday season. MS knows they have shows coming up in late 2020, early 2021, late 2021 etc that they'll need to build buzz around.

MS is looking strong AF right now.
 
The irony of the poll currently suggesting people want quantity over quality. It is 100% a quality question. If they only showed a few games but they were all really cool or interesting and enticed people to want to buy them/play them then that’s all they need. No ones going to care if they show like 15 mid-tier games. Quality first.
 

01011001

Banned
we live in a time where reveals are closely followed by the release of the revealed product.

the days where the PS3 was shown on 2 separate E3 conferences before it got eventually released are over. we will see reveals and releases getting closer and closer to each other, because there is so much shit that begs for the consumer's attention these days that a long period between the announcement and the release of a product is not the way to go anymore.

look at how Nintendo revealed the Switch... it released less than 6 months after it was announced. I think more and more companies will go this route.
 
As long as they show some good stuff that’s all I care about. Just make an exciting event and bring content that makes people excited to see where Xbox is going in the future.

Halo is confirmed so we’ll see that, Forza Motorsport is a given which being a racing game fan is what I’m looking for. What I’m really interested in seeing is what all the new studios have been up to since their acquisitions. The fact that we have all these new kinds of titles that are going to come from Xbox excites me.
 

G-Bus

Banned
Really thinking they'll have stuff a lot further along than Sony. So a lot of gameplay. Non of this cinematic, in engine bullshit. they'll go all out.

Here's to hoping. I don't play on Xbox and have very little interest in doing so. Id still like to see them do well. Competition is good for the industry.

I still secretly hope scalebound being dropped was a diversion and we'll see it as a launch title for next gen. Hahaha. Riiiight.
 
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ThatGamingDude

I am a virgin
They'll be playing more to their investors than they will be to the general populace

You can gussy up an investor meeting as much as you want, but it's still mainly for investors
No need to have a decorated musician to make your presentation fancy; just give me the deets
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
Ive never really been blown away by a Microsoft show. There is usually 1 or 2 things that really speak to me. I expect much of the same from this outing.
 
Also, and i dont know if its still in effect, they have that rule where they wont show a game that is more than a year away from release, or something like that.

TBF Sony showing off games years off helped them build a lot of momentum with PS4. I got super-hyped on Dreams but little did I know it'd be SEVEN YEARS before it finally came out xD.

I think if it's a game MS knows only they are bringing, for this early phase of next-gen it's perfectly fine to show a few games that might be a few years off. Simple teases, etc. Sony already had a couple games in their show that are 2022 (think it was 3rd-party though), so MS showing 1 or 2 games that are 2022/2023 as small teases to build that early hype would do them very well, especially if they're visually showstopping.

Bonus points if they're strong on nostalgia ;)

If you have it, show it. I used to think people show games way too early...and they do...but apparently nobody else seems to care. Sony shows first party games way early, microsoft needs to just show everything no matter how far it is in development. Just knowing a game exists (FABLE) can help someone who is on the fence

Exactly. People underestimate HOW MUCH showing games years off helped Sony build strong momentum in PS4's early years. Dreams, Uncharted 4, SFV, Shenmue 3, FFVII Remake etc. All shown at least two years before release (some even earlier than that). Can extend to stuff like Crash remakes, too.

A lot of people like being sold on a vision for the next-gen and if that means showing off a few games that'll be years away, so be it. I don't think MS needs to go overboard (and certainly avoid some of the mistakes Sony made in this regard, like with Dreams, which turns out was just shown WAY too early), but 1 or 2 2022/2023 1st-party teases would be amazing especially if they're for IP with established fanbases.

They don't even need to be 1st party, tbh. 3rd-party platform exclusives would do the job as well, just as long as they impress and make a statement, and get people anticipating to know more (they also need to clearly communicate they're console-exclusive to Xbox as well, that's something they didn't do too well with the May showing of games like The Medium and Scorn).
 
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Hunnybun

Member
I find it hard to believe they could have enough exclusives that they can hold some back AND provide an effective response to Sony's strong showing.

We already know Initiative's game isn't ready.

What do they conceivably have? Halo, Hellblade 2, Fable, Everwild, Forza, Obsidian's game, something from Double Fine.

If the games look good then that's a strong showing, but they can hardly hold a couple of them back and still impress after Sony showed 8 first party exclusives.

They need to take a risk and get people taking notice, and worry about other stuff later.
 
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Psykodad

Banned
All of MS' momentum is fabricated.
All polls heavily favor Sony, Sony can show the tiniest bit of anything PS5-related and it gains far more traction than anything major shown by MS.

MS has no other option than to show what people can expect at launch and in the next 2 years.
They're dead last and have been seriously lacking throughout this gen compared to Sony and Nintendo.

They're way past the point of being able to play safe.
 
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Crew 511A

Member
Yeah, they can afford it.

Halo Infinite will be the biggest exclusive game in some time. It's going to be bonkers popular this holiday season. MS knows they have shows coming up in late 2020, early 2021, late 2021 etc that they'll need to build buzz around.

MS is looking strong AF right now.

I love Halo, but I think you're overstating its popularity quite a bit.
 

Vasto

Member
Yeah, they can afford it.

Halo Infinite will be the biggest exclusive game in some time. It's going to be bonkers popular this holiday season. MS knows they have shows coming up in late 2020, early 2021, late 2021 etc that they'll need to build buzz around.

MS is looking strong AF right now.

They can just do a in depth look at Halo Infinite, reveal Xbox Series S and call it a day. :messenger_beaming:
 

Dnice1

Member
Can Microsoft afford to hold back from showing all their big games in their July event?

Seems like a trick question.
 

BeardGawd

Banned
MS has to be strategic. Just like Sony supposedly held back some game announcements I’m sure MS will keep a few close to their chest to counter any new Sony announcements.
 
Well, it’s all relative, but here are some big games we know are coming and will likely be announced.
-Obsidian’s AAA fantasy RPG
-Playground’s AAA fantasy RPG (Fable)
-Forza Motorsport 8 (most likely)
- Halo Infinite (confirmed)
- Everwild (announced, likely there)
- Hellblade 2 (announced, maybe there)
-Psychonauts 2 (announced, likely there)
- Double Fine’s second game (only heard from a couple people)
- At least 2 or 3 Xbox Global Publishing games
-Perfect Dark (nobody knows who’s making it, but both The Coalition and The Initiative have been attached at separate times and to varying degrees of reliability, so I’m including it here anyway)

Here are some games that exist that likely won’t be announced here:
-The Initiative’s AAA game
-State of Decay 3/State of Decay MMO (nobody knows which or if both are in dev, so including both here)
-inXile’s AAA UE5 RPG. To far out to be announced. Any announcement will be a logo and CGI trailer. Not worth it to announce
-The Outer Worlds 2/whatever that team is making. Probably to early to announce, but could go either way. Still put it here
-Compulsion’s game
-The Coalition’s next project (likely Gears 6)


I feel like they will reveal everything far enough along to reveal (barring a few things like Double Fine’s game or Perfect Dark) and save things that are close to being ready to reveal for other things this year (Perfect Dark, Outer Worlds 2, Undead’s project)
 

yurinka

Member
I think that to compete at launch they have to show gameplay of all their 1st/2nd/3rd party AAA (and a with top indies) console exclusives, or multi games with marketing rights coming to 2020 and 2021, and some announement CG trailers and teasers for games coming 2022 and some a few even in 2023.

For their main games: I think they must start with Halo gameplay, then announce the Initiative game, to continue with Hellblade gameplay, Forza gameplay, show Elder Ring and end with Fable. It would be nice to include a new KI there, but it won't happen.
 

whitesugar

Banned
they will want to stop any narrative starting this coming gen [or continuing from now if you believe the no more gens rubbish] that they have less games. whereas Sony have only showed games so far that are expected within the first year, I would not be surprised if MS were happy to show bigger games that are 2-3 years away.

i fully expect them to have a comfortably stronger show than Sony did for this reason. and i expect there will be knee jerk reactions that Sony is losing this gen or needs to buy 5 big studios or some shit like that, because MS are gonna spunk a lot out at this show
 
They need to come out swinging. I also don't think they can rest on their tentpole franchises either (Halo, Gears, Forza)

With all these studio acquisitions I do think they could have a great show on their hands, but it's likely going to be a showpiece event for Halo. Not to mention the time scale for the newly bought studios means we're unlikely to see much from teams at Double Fine and Compulsion.
 

Stuart360

Member
All of MS' momentum is fabricated.
All polls heavily favor Sony, Sony can show the tiniest bit of anything PS5-related and it gains far more traction than anything major shown by MS.

MS has no other option than to show what people can expect at launch and in the next 2 years.
They're dead last and have been seriously lacking throughout this gen compared to Sony and Nintendo.

They're way past the point of being able to play safe.
Why do you have to start console war shit in a thread that had decent discussion?
 

Dory16

Banned
They can afford it just as much as I can afford to go work as a nurse without a mask.

Show everything. Just like the presentation from 2013 (followed by Sony's shenanigans at E3) pretty much doomed the Xbox One, this one has the potential to make or break the XSX.
They will always have a following and I will stay on game pass regardless. But not hitting this out of the park would nullify most of what they've done since Mattrick was replaced. They would enter next gen in the same shape as they did current gen.
 

Psykodad

Banned
Why do you have to start console war shit in a thread that had decent discussion?
Why do you imply that I'm trying to start a console war?

I answered the question and afaik I'm free to state my opinion the way I see it.

Imo, they need to go all out, given their position this gen and Sony admittedly holding stuff back for august.
They need to go in guns blazing, especially with the current fallout due to Spencers recent comments about next-gen exclusives.
 
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