Xbox Rumors and Speculation

I can see a big time partnership with Microsoft and a Japanese publisher. They will not buy out a publisher but backing up a truck of cash to leverage a well established publisher with well known IP to launch day and date in Game Pass and Xcloud would be huge. Fact that Street Fighter 4 and all the Yakuza's will be day and date into Game Pass while PSO came to the Xbox in the US first is a tell that there's been some kind of deal struck with Sega. Whether it's temporary or long term remains to be seen...but that's where I'm guessing these rumors are coming from. Would be amazing if Microsoft can get the entire back catalog of Sega into Game Pass.

If we're allowed to use our imagination here...Microsoft buys the publishing rights to Shinobi and brings builds up Itagaki's (Ninja Gaiden) new team to make it.
 
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For some people it was Alpha Protocol, but I started liking Obsidian more after The Outer Worlds.

The character writing for Parvati, Nyoka, Ellie and Felix is what made the game so damn funny and enjoyable.
 
I'd like to see MS get:
  • Asobo Studio - I just started Plague Tale but reviews are overwhelmingly positive. They also assisted with Recore which ain't a half bad game.
  • Tecmo - I know they are owned by Koei but doesn't seem like they leverage the Tecmo IP much. They could approach Koei about funding specific Tecmo IP as exlcusives if buying the IP doesn't make sense. Bring back Itagaki for Ninja Gaiden and also put out/fund DOA, Fatal Frame, etc. as exclusives on GamePass day one.
  • Crytek - New Crysis game on next gen engines would be nuts. Have them continue Ryse and just make the combat better. They also have some VR experience that could be leveraged at first on PC and then Xbox when wireless VR becomes a reality.
Of course pipe dream but if any one of the above happened, I'd be very happy about it. If all 3, I think MS would be "done" with studio acquisitions.
 
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Tentonhammer said:
I'd like to see MS get:
  • Asobo Studio - I just started Plague Tale but reviews are overwhelmingly positive. They also assisted with Recore which ain't a half bad game.
  • Tecmo - I know they are owned by Koei but doesn't seem like they leverage the Tecmo IP much. They could approach Koei about funding specific Tecmo IP as exlcusives if buying the IP doesn't make sense. Bring back Itagaki for Ninja Gaiden and also put out/fund DOA, Fatal Frame, etc. as exclusives on GamePass day one.
  • Crytek - New Crysis game on next gen engines would be nuts. Have them continue Ryse and just make the combat better. They also have some VR experience that could be leveraged at first on PC and then Xbox when wireless VR becomes a reality.
Of course pipe dream but if any one of the above happened, I'd be very happy about it. If all 3, I think MS would be "done" with studio acquisitions.
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Fatal Frame is the only scary game I couldn't finish cause it freaked me out too much.

Crytek would be great but highly unlikely. Nothing wrong with dreaming though.
 
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Tentonhammer said:
I'd like to see MS get:
  • Asobo Studio - I just started Plague Tale but reviews are overwhelmingly positive. They also assisted with Recore which ain't a half bad game.
  • Tecmo - I know they are owned by Koei but doesn't seem like they leverage the Tecmo IP much. They could approach Koei about funding specific Tecmo IP as exlcusives if buying the IP doesn't make sense. Bring back Itagaki for Ninja Gaiden and also put out/fund DOA, Fatal Frame, etc. as exclusives on GamePass day one.
  • Crytek - New Crysis game on next gen engines would be nuts. Have them continue Ryse and just make the combat better. They also have some VR experience that could be leveraged at first on PC and then Xbox when wireless VR becomes a reality.
Of course pipe dream but if any one of the above happened, I'd be very happy about it. If all 3, I think MS would be "done" with studio acquisitions.
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dbled34 said:
Fatal Frame is the only scary game I couldn't finish cause it freaked me out too much.

Crytek would be great but highly unlikely. Nothing wrong with dreaming though.
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I think crytek is partially owned by amazon, that’s also one reason as to why their lumberyard engine is based on the cryengine
 
I don't believe Amazon owns Crytek yet there was a complicated deal in place regarding their game engine. I'd be surprised by a Crytek purchase because part of their value is Cryengine. Between Slipspace and how reliant Microsoft studios are with UE4, would be very surprised if Microsoft wanted another game engine. That said, I could see a reboot of them as a Microsoft 2nd party. With talk (directly from Microsoft execs) of Microsoft publishing being active and knowing that Moon and Remedy are locked down by other publishers, Crytek seems like the most logical partner for a Western AAA game.
 
OneBadMutha said:
I don't believe Amazon owns Crytek yet there was a complicated deal in place regarding their game engine. I'd be surprised by a Crytek purchase because part of their value is Cryengine. Between Slipspace and how reliant Microsoft studios are with UE4, would be very surprised if Microsoft wanted another game engine. That said, I could see a reboot of them as a Microsoft 2nd party. With talk (directly from Microsoft execs) of Microsoft publishing being active and knowing that Moon and Remedy are locked down by other publishers, Crytek seems like the most logical partner for a Western AAA game.
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I thought Moon Studios was already a Microsoft 1st part studio. Moon Studio lists themselves as a 1st party studio on their own website. That said purchasing Crytek and getting the Cry engine wouldn't be a bad pick up.
 
karmakid said:
I think crytek is partially owned by amazon, that’s also one reason as to why their lumberyard engine is based on the cryengine
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Amazon licensed the CryEngine for something like 70 Million and I'm guessing that agreement allowed Amazon to release their own version of the engine "Lumberyard". Crytek actually sued (and then settled) Star Citizen developer CIG who is now using the Lumberyard engine. I can't find anything regarding Amazon owning any kind of stake in Crytek. If you find any links you can share, I'd be interested in reading them.

That said, it doesn't mean that Crytek is in a position to be bought (as in desire to be bought; need funding) or that Microsoft is interested. A few years back they had major issues and had to shutter a bunch of offices/lay off a ton of employees. I think they are in a much better spot now. I'd love it but only if it was a good fit in the end.

On the engine front, while I think Unreal is a great engine, MS does pay hefty fees to Epic to publish games using that engine. With Slipspace, I haven't really heard talk of them positioning the engine outside of Halo but maybe there are plans to. I'm not sure where CryEngine sits in terms of features/usability but if they did buy Crytek, they would get all of their IP and potentially end fees paid to Epic. Crytek could end up being the team the builds the engine for most of MS primarily AND also build their existing IP as that is what they do today. Whether that makes sense or not, is another matter...fun to debate though :).
 
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Tentonhammer said:
Amazon licensed the CryEngine for something like 70 Million and I'm guessing that agreement allowed Amazon to release their own version of the engine "Lumberyard". Crytek actually sued (and then settled) Star Citizen developer CIG who is now using the Lumberyard engine. I can't find anything regarding Amazon owning any kind of stake in Crytek. If you find any links you can share, I'd be interested in reading them.

That said, it doesn't mean that Crytek is in a position to be bought (as in desire to be bought; need funding) or that Microsoft is interested. A few years back they had major issues and had to shutter a bunch of offices/lay off a ton of employees. I think they are in a much better spot now. I'd love it but only if it was a good fit in the end.

On the engine front, while I think Unreal is a great engine, MS does pay hefty fees to Epic to publish games using that engine. With Slipspace, I haven't really heard talk of them positioning the engine outside of Halo but maybe there are plans to. I'm not sure where CryEngine sits in terms of features/usability but if they did buy Crytek, they would get all of their IP and potentially end fees paid to Epic. Crytek could end up being the team the builds the engine for most of MS primarily AND also build their existing IP as that is what they do today. Whether that makes sense or not, is another matter...fun to debate though :).
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MS should just buy Crytek and put some quality developers to help make great games.
 
How would you guys feel about Xbox investing into acquiring one of the following studios?

Mistwalker
Grasshopper Manufacture
Cygames
Arc System Works
Platinum Games
White Owl Studios
Grounding
Valhalla studio
Cave

And if they focus on opening a Japanese Xbox studio from the ground up, like The Initiative. Who would lead the studio?
 
Edge BC said:
How would you guys feel about Xbox investing into acquiring one of the following studios?

Mistwalker
Grasshopper Manufacture
Cygames
Arc System Works
Platinum Games
White Owl Studios
Grounding
Valhalla studio
Cave

And if they focus on opening a Japanese Xbox studio from the ground up, like The Initiative. Who would lead the studio?
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PG would be good if they could focus on exclusives that were Japanese centric so that they could get a foothold in Japan. Game Pass won't help in Japan if there are no Japanese games.
 
Edge BC said:
How would you guys feel about Xbox investing into acquiring one of the following studios?

Mistwalker
Grasshopper Manufacture
Cygames
Arc System Works
Platinum Games
White Owl Studios
Grounding
Valhalla studio
Cave

And if they focus on opening a Japanese Xbox studio from the ground up, like The Initiative. Who would lead the studio?
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To be honest any of those would be good. I personally would lean toward Mistwalker. Give them the resources and time to make an epic jrpg.

For non japanese studios, a thought came across my mind. Why not acquire Lab Zero Games. You get a good small developer that you can build up ( Microsoft's M.O. right now) that has experience making fighting games and RPGs. Plus you get 2 new IPs ( Skullgirls and Indivisible) that you can leverage.
 
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Hedon said:
So much for all these studios not being "AAA", when it looks like many of them are actually moving to "AAA". I like it!
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Yeah people will get over how many A's they have. It's about Microsoft giving these studios the time and funding to make what they want to make. It's unlikely Double Fine will ever want to make a 100 hour open world game. On the other hand, Fargo at InXile has been dying to have the support to make something AAA and it looks like he's getting the backing and talent to do it.

I keep saying people under-estimate how much better games will look just based on the tools. Large teams will only be necessary for AAA looking games if they're shooting for a lot of content or ongoing support.
 
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