So you really think they've got nothing besides the tentpoles for the next 3 years? That there won't be any new AAA exclusives from Microsoft until somewhere between 2021 and 2013?
Say it ain't so.
Microsoft At E3 2018
- Thread starter Kvally
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So you really think they've got nothing besides the tentpoles for the next 3 years? That there won't be any new AAA exclusives from Microsoft until somewhere between 2021 and 2013?
Say it ain't so.
I’m no insider. Have no sources. Just looking at what we know, I think we’re minimum of 2.5 years away. If it’s big budget, ambitious AAA, I don’t see how it could be ready before the next Xbox unless Microsoft has achieved some breakthroughs in AAA game development. In one month, we’ll know for sure.
Personally I’m a fan of episodic now that they have Game Pass so maybe that’s the wild card.
This is the second gen in a row their first party disappeared half way through the gen. The beginning is always weak but at least with Sony you can trust their first party will be come. With Microsoft who knows what you will get if they are going to depend on publishing deals and not building their studios in some way.
In terms of what’s happened, that is accurate. In terms of the future, both companies have different leadership now compared to where they were the 2nd half of last gen and start of this one. We know Xbox strategy for long term is different. Sony is playing it close to the best as they probably should given their position. Game Pass becoming the focus is the most reassuring aspect of Xbox exclusives and innovation long term. Front loading the gen to move plastic and then reap the rewards of that plastic will no longer work when plastic is no longer the barrier to entry or what locks people into ecosystems.
I only remember that happening the last third or so of the last gen. Some might even say the last quarter. I definitely wouldn't say half, but maybe I'm remembering wrong.
So far, this one seems soft in the middle... as long as they pull through this year and next.
Well, I hope you're wrong, because if you're right, that means all MS will release for the next 2 1/2 years is the same-old, same-old, and all we'll be hearing about for the next 2 years is the same stuff we've heard for the last 3. That will be a sad limp to the finish line.
I think I'll hang on to my unreasonable optimism, though. No harm. I'm hoping that MS knows that this E3 is critical, and they will deliver.
If not, oh well. At least the meltdowns on Resetera will be entertaining.
As for episodic ... I dunno. People got real excited about the potential of episodic games 8 years ago or so, but it never really seemed to catch on. The wait between episodes was too long and unpredictable. By the time the next episode arrived, you'd forgotten half of what happened in the previous one, and the tension/momentum was gone. They expected people to have "water cooler" moments about how the series was progressing, but that hardly ever happened (maybe with Life is Strange but that's about it).
Well, we don't really know anything. But if you're right then MS is fu'ed.
Episodic is s***.
It was last 3 years last gen that was. The first 4-5 years were very good.
Jez talked about why he isn't going to E3 and it has nothing to do with fear that they won't have much. He has personal, home related issues so he won't be able to make it. He has no idea what Microsoft is going to show. Another of his staff has other pressing matters as well, although Jez is the only full timer that at WC
People took his statement wrong. He cleared it up. Check Era..
People took his statement wrong. He cleared it up. Check Era..
The problem is Spencer has been in charge for awhile. We are supposed to believe he is the savior so if they don't have much for the next 18 months then he was full of it for the past few years. If they put all their chips on game pass and it fails then what?
If they are serious they will grow their first party studios. If they aren't we will get a short burst of publishing deals just like the past two gens
I don't know man .. Got an invite for the MS conference , normally we can get an invite for the Sony one through our contacts but this time that doesn't seem to be the case because we were told about their non-tradition plans or Sony just snubbing us
I have a few goals for this trip, but having a bro-moment with Phil is one of them.
Pretty sure he lifts, so I have an angle already. I’m guessing no one else will be talking to him about his workout routine. Might even carry a spare protein bar with me. Yup.
All info (if I can get any!) will be posted here.
If they fail at Game Pass, then in 5 to 7 years they’ll trail Sony, Nintendo, Steam, Google, Amazon and TenCent. They’re more focused on going head to head with Amazon, Google and TenCent in 5 years than they are going head to head with Sony today. Streaming is both their opportunity to get to #1 and the risk to drive them out of gaming for good. That’s why everything Jez wrote made sense to me. Building studios is playing the long game.
Buying short term exclusives is something they do to compete with Sony now. Assuming this budget increase isn’t a blank check, I think it makes sense they invest in studios for the long term. If they want to have special IPs, 3 years from now is minimum. Great new IPs are generally longer than that. Ryse, Gears 4, Halo 5, Quantum Break and Sea of Thieves all needed another year of development. Microsoft can not afford average AAA IPs because they wouldn’t extend dev time by 25%. Horizon:ZD and God of War were 5 year projects that had issues and would’ve likely been canned under Microsoft after year 2 or 3 years. Microsoft has to change this philosophy.
Phil is not a savior. As head of Microsoft games, the studios all punched below their weight class. He doesn’t know how to run AAA projects. He’s hired other guys to do that. He happens to be the highest ranking Microsoft executive who’s passionate about gaming and somehow got his boss to buy in. He’s also better at communication than Mattrick and that matters. He’s not a gaming unicorn but at the same time his failure to gauge great games doesn’t mean his high level strategy along with Nadellas backing won’t work.
In the meantime, Xbox is the place to play multiplats, backwards compatibility and hopefully a better Halo game. I don’t think that changes before 2020 at the most optimistic earliest.
I have to admit that I’m confused by why gamers are some of the least receptive to this technology. There’s nothing funny about it. When latency drops significantly in the next few years, streaming games will be completely viable. It’s the biggest reason Nadella and Microsoft’s investors have bought into Xbox. Without this on the horizon, they would’ve spun Xbox off.
Who cares how the games are being made playable as long as you get a premium experience? Do people love having that box under their TV that much?
5G’s secret weapon will be low latency, empowering next-gen VR and gaming
“5G dramatically improves both latency and data rates. It can cut response time down to 1-2 milliseconds (0.001 or 0.002 seconds) from 4G’s average 50 ms (0.05 seconds). Similarly, it can increase the data rate from 4G’s average 0.02-0.03 gigabits per second to between 0.1-5.0 Gbps.”
Not against it all. It isn't coming any time soon. There are always people like you pushing this stuff every 5 years and it always ends the same way.
People like me?
You know this stuff has far more importance and goes well beyond gaming. Entertainment mediums will leverage it but they aren’t creating it.
So far 4G has been hit and miss and yet we were promised the world with it before it launched. The quality still varies wildly depending on where you are, what kind of building you are in and how many other people are on it. It's been years since 4G started it's rollout and there are still plenty of areas that either don't have it or have very spotty coverage.
If this 5G thing pans out that'll be great but I'll believe it when I see it, wireless connections are always going to be a challenge for gaming, especially when you factor in getting a good signal through a building, just about every stat on any wireless connection speed is best case scenario which means out in the open air as close to a tower as you can get. New tech always sounds exciting but so far I have yet to see something like this actually turn out to be as good as they always promise it will be.
I agree with this post although I would point out that neither Horizon or God of War spent 5 years in full development, that's counting pre-production where only a small group of people actually work on the game.
As far as MS I think the bottom line is clearly they are/were focused more on services and didn't pay enough attention to getting new exclusive IP's. The games that were cancelled honestly didn't look like they'd be big hits anyway and even if they had been released they likely would have been one and done titles. Playing the long game is fine but when you are a company who's been at this for three generations now and seem to be going backwards that's a problem.
Doesn't matter if it goes beyond gaming or not. We are talking about gaming.
Yes, people like you, people pushing the 'streaming' idea.
Look, we shall see. Is only matter of time before a new gen kicks off.
Sure there will be issues. That’s why I said 5 years. It begins rollout late this year. Even short of promises, it’ll make a significant difference for gaming. People dealt with 40ms latency for gaming on TVs until a few years ago. Even if it doesn’t get down to the promised 1-2ms latency, wouldn’t 15ms latency work on a portable device that doesn’t have input lag?
Gamers also tend to be early adopters of technology that impacts gaming. They were early adopters of HDTVs and broadband. Remember when Xbox Live launched in 2002 and got trashed as DOA because of the low adoption of broadband at the time? A few short years from now, we’ll be sitting in the same place with 5G.
Am I understanding you right, OneBadMutha, as saying that MS will move away from the dedicated console market and toward a streaming game service similar to Netflix, available on a wide variety of platforms (smart TVs, for instance, conceivably even PS6)?
If so, I'd just observe that hardcore gamers tend to want the best looking, best performing versions of games they can get. You're going to get that on a console. Streaming will always take a hit in terms of visuals, framerate, or latency. That's especially true of competitive multiplayer shooters, which are Xbox's bread and butter, where you've got highly demanding visuals, high sensitivity to framerate, high sensitivity to lag, and tons of players streaming simultaneously. I think you're inevitably going to get better performance on a local copy, vs. streaming.
So I don't know that the hardcore will flock to it. I think it'll be a hard sell for them. It might appeal more to casuals, to people who don't care about playing competitive multiplayer, or to people who don't want to buy a console.
Having said that, this is all speculative, and the only reason we're talking about it is to kill time until E3. My focus is the next year or two. Who knows what'll be happening 5 years from now. Like Yogi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."
If so, I'd just observe that hardcore gamers tend to want the best looking, best performing versions of games they can get. You're going to get that on a console. Streaming will always take a hit in terms of visuals, framerate, or latency. That's especially true of competitive multiplayer shooters, which are Xbox's bread and butter, where you've got highly demanding visuals, high sensitivity to framerate, high sensitivity to lag, and tons of players streaming simultaneously. I think you're inevitably going to get better performance on a local copy, vs. streaming.
So I don't know that the hardcore will flock to it. I think it'll be a hard sell for them. It might appeal more to casuals, to people who don't care about playing competitive multiplayer, or to people who don't want to buy a console.
Having said that, this is all speculative, and the only reason we're talking about it is to kill time until E3. My focus is the next year or two. Who knows what'll be happening 5 years from now. Like Yogi Berra said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."
You'll need to stand in line for it. You know, with those British chaps, who are calling it the 'pho queue.'
I hope that's not true, but if the thing about Myerson holding them down has any legs, it'd be hard to see how they could have much AAA content that isn't more of the same. I wonder if they may end up announcing a few non-AAA type games instead, stuff like Ori and Cuphead perhaps, since I expect that Phil would try to get *something* done even if the budgetary constraints may have prevented something more ambitious.
Of course, that's my opinion based on speculation that's probably also based on rumors, so it's about as likely to be wildly wrong as anywhere near close.
Geez, I sure hope that's not the case. I came over here full of hope and optimism about this E3, and you guys are crushing it. Like a fragile flower under heavy boots.
I feel like it's just me and Marty who are optimistic about Microsoft this E3. What's wrong with this picture...
Geez, I sure hope that's not the case. I came over here full of hope and optimism about this E3, and you guys are crushing it. Like a fragile flower under heavy boots.
I feel like it's just me and Marty who are optimistic about Microsoft this E3. What's wrong with this picture...
My question is what were the planning for 2018-19 3-4 years ago? SoT and Crackdown were meant to come out earlier so were they really just planning Halo and Forza and thats it? Hard to imagine.
That’s the million dollar question isn’t it? If they have nothing to release within the next 12 months it means just that. They didn’t plan anything when it counted 3 or 4 years ago.
I feel like it's just me and Marty who are optimistic about Microsoft this E3. What's wrong with this picture...
Nahhhh I’m in there with you guys. Im expecting surprises as far as game announcements go.
If not, I will burn the place to the ground and steal Phil’s personal jet.