Xbox Rumors and Speculation

I think he is talking about STATE OF DECAY 2 is actually a DURANGO game playing on the PC. SO XBOX ONE game running on PC. He talks about how they pulled the plumbing from XBOX and made it work with PC. It seems sort of mind blowing. I actually struggle to get the full grip of it. I guess PC=XBOX=PC=XBOX
 
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They’ve already worked with MS developing Forza Horizon 2 on the 360, FM6 and FH3 for Windows. And currently working on something called Project Nova
"spiritual successor of CCP Games’ first-person shooter DUST 514 "
 
Honestly, Phil should snag Sumo Digital. I think they did a great job with CD3.

Sumo is a collection of studios. They have 5 separate studios with no relation to each other. All in AA size. Kind of a weird setup since they don’t self publish their games either. Have to wonder if it would make more sense to cherry pick a bunch of smaller studios if that was the strategy.
 
Sumo is a collection of studios. They have 5 separate studios with no relation to each other. All in AA size. Kind of a weird setup since they don’t self publish their games either. Have to wonder if it would make more sense to cherry pick a bunch of smaller studios if that was the strategy.


Aren’t they like some 500 strong?
 
Aren’t they like some 500 strong?

Something close to that. Which brings up a point. Jinca said these studios are cheap. In the context of Microsoft money, acquiring them is. None of these aqusitions have made a dent on Microsoft’s books. Where the cost matters, is ongoing operating cost. This is not a small consideration for Microsoft. In fact, the number of employees added to the payroll is a far greater indicator of Microsoft commitment than expense for aquisitions. Growing Rare from under 100 employees to 250 is a bigger deal than acquiring an expensive studio due to its IP who has under 100 employees.

In that context, don’t think Sumo makes sense. Brad Sams, a pretty reliable Microsoft insider, says Microsoft is aware of the chatter about Game Pass being a B roll gaming dump. Says Microsoft strategy is to avoid that. Why they’re building up studios they own.



Obsidian has 4 teams

Outer Worlds project
Pillars content
New project
New Project


At first I was shocked to hear this since they still have under 200 employees however I think it’s 4 teams who’ll become 2 teams. The Outer Worlds team and Pillars team will likely blend into these teams starting new projects when they’re finished. What it says is Obsidian will have at least 2 teams going forward.
 
Something close to that. Which brings up a point. Jinca said these studios are cheap. In the context of Microsoft money, acquiring them is. None of these aqusitions have made a dent on Microsoft’s books. Where the cost matters, is ongoing operating cost. This is not a small consideration for Microsoft. In fact, the number of employees added to the payroll is a far greater indicator of Microsoft commitment than expense for aquisitions. Growing Rare from under 100 employees to 250 is a bigger deal than acquiring an expensive studio due to its IP who has under 100 employees.

In that context, don’t think Sumo makes sense. Brad Sams, a pretty reliable Microsoft insider, says Microsoft is aware of the chatter about Game Pass being a B roll gaming dump. Says Microsoft strategy is to avoid that. Why they’re building up studios they own.



At first I was shocked to hear this since they still have under 200 employees however I think it’s 4 teams who’ll become 2 teams. The Outer Worlds team and Pillars team will likely blend into these teams starting new projects when they’re finished. What it says is Obsidian will have at least 2 teams going forward.


You think there may be losses in employment, of certain studios, due to overlap?
 
You think there may be losses in employment, of certain studios, due to overlap?

Haven’t heard any such thing. If they bought publishers, then maybe. Developers...with Microsoft’s strategy of giving these devs autonomy, it’s probably best to let the execs who run those studios make the ultimate staffing decisions.

With as fast as Microsoft is expanding, the downside is there won’t be time to onboard everyone consistently or centralize quickly. I work for a company of about 600 employees (not in gaming) who got bought out by a large corporations and 7 years later, still figuring out how to integrate. It’s especially difficult to integrate technology processes and procedures.

Time is of the essence so Microsoft is likely targeting studios who are solid independently who don’t need any micromanagement. I don’t see them scaling them down to make them run leaner. Based on videos by Ninja Theory, Obsidian and InXile, my assumption is Microsoft is buying them, giving them resources when they ask but not forcing their culture or will on them.
 
Sumo is a collection of studios. They have 5 separate studios with no relation to each other. All in AA size. Kind of a weird setup since they don’t self publish their games either. Have to wonder if it would make more sense to cherry pick a bunch of smaller studios if that was the strategy.

Sumo's main studio is in my home city of Sheffield and I am pretty certain they are working on an unannounced AAA game.
 
Current rumors are it *might* be a Japanese dev. It’s flimsy so far, but maybe.
 
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From an Xbox standpoint buying Japanese devs makes no sense but from the standpoint of putting gamepass on Switch and others they probably have to.
 
From an Xbox standpoint buying Japanese devs makes no sense but from the standpoint of putting gamepass on Switch and others they probably have to.

Kinda agree with you on that, I’d love to see a better relationship with Japanese Devs to have day in day releases with their titles, big or small.
 
This makes me moist...

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Have absolutely no idea why.

Well for me personally it’s the potential. Having almost all those studios now much better funded, hiring more people...and more studio acquisitions to come.

I’m always up for the new installments of established franchises across all systems, but the potential for something new and great is rising.

And that’s exciting, for me at least.
 
What does that even mean? So the goal is you don't even need a Xbox console to play Xbox games? By the way, I'm not a pc gamer.

I think it’s pretty clear now, as soon as they’re technically able to stream games with decent input lag, that’s the business plan. If we want to play the games at their best then you’ll need an Xbox or pretty decent PC.