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[Shabad]

All their first party are either on the traditionnal Halo/Gears of War/Forza/Fable or on small stuff I am not excited about. This is getting really old, and nothing to feel good about imo...

If we are considering second party too, which I am assuming most of the discussion in this thread is about, it is really not better... Quantum Break and Scalebound are surely promising, but we are yet to see anything on the second, and have barely seen the first either. The other projects have been underwhelming are show little promise to my eyes (Ryse flopped in so many aspects, Sunset Overdrive is going to disappoint hard #MMW, Crackdown has never been exciting, ... )

Anyway, to answer the OP, no.

 

[abadguy]

SO will disappoint "hard" eh? Can i borrow your crystal ball? I'd like to get tommorrows lottery numbers.

 

[JLeack]

All their first party are either on the traditionnal Halo/Gears of War/Forza/Fable or on small stuff I am not excited about. This is getting really old, and nothing to feel good about imo...

If we are considering second party too, which I am assuming most of the discussion in this thread is about, it is really not better... Quantum Break and Scalebound are surely promising, but we are yet to see anything on the second, and have barely seen the first either. The other projects have been underwhelming are show little promise to my eyes (Ryse flopped in so many aspects, Sunset Overdrive is going to disappoint hard #MMW, Crackdown has never been exciting, ... )

Anyway, to answer the OP, no.

Why do you say Sunset Overdrive is going to "disappoint hard"? Have you played it? I know myself and several other journalists I know IRL got some time with it at E3 2014 and walked away impressed. It's a very fun game.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

SO will disappoint "hard" eh? Can a borrow your crystal ball? I'd like to get tommorrows lottery numbers.

The lottery numbers are randomly selected, suggesting an Insomniac game is going to 'disappoint' isn't an outrageous prediction, judging by their past product.

It might be a 'fun' game at first glance, but nobody knows how much depth or longevity it will offer, and nobody knows how it will sell.

 

[Lemmy]

The lottery numbers are randomly selected, suggesting an Insomniac game is going to 'disappoint' isn't an outrageous prediction, judging by their past product.

It might be a 'fun' game at first glance, but nobody knows how much depth or longevity it will offer, and nobody knows how it will sell.

Yup.

Insomniac don't make good shooters. There's more reason to expect another letdown from them on that front than anything else to be honest.

Nothing I've seen of the game has excited me anymore than pre-release media of FUSE did.

 

[InFamousRaiden]

I am just happy that they are back at ground 0 and talking about games.

 

[abadguy]

The lottery numbers are randomly selected, suggesting an Insomniac game is going to 'disappoint' isn't an outrageous prediction, judging by their past product.

It might be a 'fun' game at first glance, but nobody knows how much depth or longevity it will offer, and nobody knows how it will sell.

So if nobody knows how it will do saying it will "fail hard" is pretty damn silly now isnt it. As for track record Insomniac has a better track record than say Guerilla games who's claim to fame was a crappy nam shooter and Killzone. Yet people seem to be excited at the prospect of a new IP from them.

Unfortunately with threads like these one has to wonder how much of certain posters dismissal of a game has to do with what console its on. Especially in the case of a dev like Insomniac.

 

[Red Liquorice]

They have nothing I want.

Sony aren't doing too much better, it's Bloodborne then nothing. So Wii U is my next gen console purchase in 2014? I guess Hell will freeze over after all!

 

[Lemmy]

So if nobody knows how it will do saying it will "fail hard" is pretty damn silly now isnt it.

That isn't what was said though.

As for track record Insomniac has a better track record than say Guerilla games who's claim to fame was a crappy nam shooter and Killzone. Yet people seem to be excited at the prospect of a new IP from them.

Unfortunately with threads like these one has to wonder how much of certain posters dismissal of a game has to do with what console its on. Especially in the case of a dev like Insomniac.

I can't help but laugh at the jump from the first paragraph to the second here.

 

[W.S.]

"A blank cheque", he said.

Yep.

As for the first party after E3, it's a bit of a tough question because Microsoft has been flexible with the way they handle development of their IP's so they don't all necessarily come from studios that they own.

Forza Horizon 2 is made by Playground games whom Microsoft doesn't own but work closely with Turn 10 and MS on that series. Master Chief Collection is being worked on by Microsoft's "go to" developers (Saber, Ruffian, Certain Affinity, etc) but aren't owned by them either. Same for other Microsoft owned IP's like Killer Instinct, Quantum Break, Scalebound, Ori, Crackdown, and potentially Phantom Dust.

Of the studios they do own and develop games we haven't gotten a whole lot to go on after E3 2014. 343's Halo 5 was only teased at, Lionhead's Fable Legends was given a good bit of coverage, Press Play revealed Project Totem at the previous PAX but outside of those everything else is veiled in mystery. Black Tusk's Gears is still too early, Rare's projects outside of KSR are unknown, Lionhead's new IP seems a bit far off, Turn 10's Forza 6 will take a few years, Twisted Pixel is also an unknown but from what I gather there seems to be a lot of stuff going on amongst all those 1st party studios which is encouraging.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Microsoft's 1st party studios but you're not really going to get a full picture of that with just one E3. MS's 2014 lineup is solid and diverse even if they aren't from 1st party studios so I'm definitely getting an Xbox One for Horizon 2, Master Chief Collection, Sunset Overdrive, and Ori since my PC sucks for gaming.

 

[Cthulhu_Steev]

So if nobody knows how it will do saying it will "fail hard" is pretty damn silly now isnt it. As for track record Insomniac has a better track record than say Guerilla games who's claim to fame was a crappy nam shooter and Killzone. Yet people seem to be excited at the prospect of a new IP from them.

Unfortunately with threads like these one has to wonder how much of certain posters dismissal of a game has to do with what console its on. Especially in the case of a dev like Insomniac.

I have no idea why you bought Guerilla Games into this, you loon. And what's with the broad-stroke dismissals of other poster's opinions?

I'm a fan of Insomniac and I love the look of SO, but I don't think it's going to be anything but shallow to play once you've got over the first few days' novelty, and I don't think it's going to have great sales numbers either.

 

[W.S.]

Why, what changed at E3 with regard to Microsoft first party exactly? It's still the same merry go round of Fable, Forza and Halo that has been pretty much the entirety of what MS makes themselves for years now.

Captain Platitude was full of bluster about gamesgamesgames all year and the only good looking new game we got to see was Ori, and that's on PC. Every new exclusive announced was a CGI trailer to boot. One of the most disappointing E3s for exclusives MS have ever had imo.

I'm gonna need to see more than Halo ports and 30fps racers to get me excited.

Fable Legends and Forza Horizon may share the same franchise names but they're very different from the Peter Molyneux Fable and Forza Motorsport series. I'd even argue Halo Guardians looks to be a fresh Halo experience just looking at where they're going with the new Spartan and the direction Halo 4 took the series.

I'm more surprised about how you can spin Phil's game focused direction at E3 as something negative. If you were were expecting a conference comprised purely of exclusives then you were bound for disappointment but MS showed off a decent balance of 2014 exclusives, 3rd party titles, and future exclusives.

I really could care less whether Master Chief Collection was a port or Horizon 2 was 30fps, I'm not a graphics whore so if they're fun and still look great on the system then that's all that matters to me.

 

[reKon]

Thinking about what franchises Rare could bring back is exciting, but you pause for a second a realize that's it's not even close to the same company it was under Nintendo.

 

[EGM1966]

Feeling better but not good yet. Consoles for me compliment my PC and therefore it's all about the full exclusives and the price point.

The new SKU and lower price point is good but it still feels like the exclusive library is fairly weak - going by E3 it'll be 2015 before I seriously consider one.

The MC collection is appealing though.

 

[Mass Effect]

It seems good enough if you're really into Xbox franchises. Still not sure how I feel overall. I don't think their line-up pushes people on the fence just yet.

Okay, Forza Horizon 2 looks absolutely amazing. The original is my second favorite racer of last gen (after Burnout Paradise). It's actually quite tempting. If there was one game I'd get an Xbone for, it would be this.

Sunset Overdrive looks great as well. Full of style and crazy action. One of the most interesting games they have for sure. And another that it pretty tempting.

Halo MC collection doesn't do much for me. I have no feelings of nostalgia for the first Halo game. I played it, but I don't remember shit from it. Halo 2 was cool. I do remember playing that with a couple of friends co-op and split-screen. It was really fun. Never really played online except once years later. Don't necessarily care for it. Halo 3 was great. Like part of the "golden age" of XBL for me. We played it for years amongst my friends (was a group of about 15 of us). But without that large group of friends to play with (since none of them have Xbones. Some are on PS4, some haven't upgraded at all yet, some don't even play games anymore), I don't really have a reason to get excited for playing that again. Playing with friends is what made the game great, not it being Halo (same goes for Halo 2). And I don't give a single fuck about Halo 4. The games being in 1080/60 doesn't mean anything to me really, especially because I'm not a big Halo fan.

Fable? Eh... I guess it looks interesting, but it's definitely not swaying me one way or the other.

Ori was definitely one of the best games they showed at E3, but that's coming to PC, so yeah. Same thing with Spark. And same with Inside.

I don't even really know what Phantom Dust is except that it's some obscure OG Xbox exclusive that's getting a sequel(?), so that doesn't mean anything to me. Crackdown could maybe be interesting, but I won't know until we see gameplay of it. I'm hesitant after 2 anyway. Same thing with Kamiya's/Platinum's game; no gameplay. But given that it's Platinum, I'm sure it will be great. Scale... whatever-it's-called is definitely on my radar. And I think that's it, right?

Anyway, I guess overall with what they showed at E3 and their other turn-arounds in the past month or 2, the Xbone went from "not a chance" to "maybe a few years down the line" for me. So that's progress at least. Still need to know that they'll actually keep supporting it throughout the entire generation and not give up halfway through like they did with the 360.

 

[Synth]

I hope people see why making all these exclusive lists sometimes is silly. It's like if this is last gen and people did their lists putting Ninja Blade on it as a reason to own the Xbox 360. While it may have been a decent game to many, who the fuck cares when God of War 3 was going to be the significantly better game anyways?

This kinda goes along with you point... but why the fuck would I care about God of War 3, when Bayonetta and DMC4 were significantly better anyways?

Microsoft have their own studios, yes, but which one of them is really known for being an amazing studio that makes great games, 343? They made a great looking game but many would argue it's not a particularly good Halo game. Turn 10? Forza 5 got lambasted with criticism for their shitty micro transactions. Lionhead? They arguably haven't made a good core game since Fable 2.

I liked Halo 4's SP (didn't bother with MP), but I can agree that they have quite a bit to prove. Turn 10 though? Everything they release last gen slapped Polyphony around critically, and their current gen rush job still sits only 1 metacritic point short of GT6. I'm not sure how anyone can claim they don't have a reputation for making great games. Don't really have anything to say about Lionhead, as I'd never really bothered with Fable I've just recently started the Anniverary version of Fable 1, and it seems good enough. Nothing amazing though.

To be honest, I'm always a little confused when people point to Sony WWS as an amazing set of world class studios. I can definitely understand Naughty Dog having that sort of acclaim, but it seems like their reputation seems to simply spill onto the other teams, that really haven't been putting out much to deserve it. I guess there's also Media Molecule.. although I'm not sure how much of that has to do with lack of competition, as LittleBigPlanet kinda sucks as a platformer, and is mostly great as a Project Spark style creation tool. Most of the teams are hardly Nintendo tier. People give 343i shit, but Guerilla Games need to step their shit up to be compared with them, let alone Bungie.

Thinking about what franchises Rare could bring back is exciting, but you pause for a second a realize that's it's not even close to the same company it was under Nintendo.

I know this is an unpopular opinion. But I found Viva Piñata to be better than anything Rare made for Nintendo outside of GoldenEye/Perfect Dark, so a new entry in that series (or Kameo) would be great imo. Most of Rare's other IP's I feel would be better handled by other devs. Killer Instinct 2013 is so far beyond either of the Killer Instinct games that Rare themselves created, that I don't even think having the old talent makes them the prime candidates for much of their catalog.

 

[Kasual7]

Considering it was mostly smoke and mirrors, no. I'm not a fan of Crackdown, never played the series. I don't even know what Phantom Dust is. Plus, they keep paying third party studios to make games for them instead of growing their own, looks exactly like what they did last gen. I'm afraid they'll abandon the console like they did with the 360 if things don't go as planned.

Yeah to me things were mostly vague, never been on any Xbox platforms but the game that might make me to jump on board is Quantum Break.

 

[rrc1594]

To be honest, I'm always a little confused when people point to Sony WWS as an amazing set of world class studios. I can definitely understand Naughty Dog having that sort of acclaim, but it seems like their reputation seems to simply spill onto the other teams, that really haven't been putting out much to deserve it.

Thank Fucking You. I always felt that way.

 

[Steverulez]

And Phil Spencer absolutely had the power to buy studios in his prior position, in his interview at IGN he said as much.

"A blank cheque", he said.

As I said in my post, they should acquire developers but I can't see them buying anyone who has massive multiple teams hence why probably weren't in the running for Bioware when they only wanted Mass Effect and that team.

Playground and Remedy - two studios that have one main team and a small mobile team (not sure Playground have ever released a mobile game anyway) make the most sense to me although you'd have to wonder if MS needed to own two racing studios? Part of the reason why they never bought Bizarre

Remedy make a lot of sense to me, I wonder what their financial situation is too, MS own Quantum Break and whilst we don't know what the details are in their deal with Remedy over that or Alan Wake i'd guess its partly because Remedy probably couldn't afford to fund it themselves?

Ruffian always struck me as bizarre, because they wouldn't have existed without Microsofts backing in the first place for Crackdown 2 and they do a ton of contract work for them ranging from Kinect stuff on 360 to KSR, Halo Spartan Assault on XB1 and the Halo 3/4 ports on XB1 too... but their new game is with another published they said? Odd.

Microsoft being seemingly uninterested to acquire developers they work with will always puzzle me especially in situations where it made sense (like Bizarre being for sale as they were close to running out of money).

 

[Grisby]

Yeah, I enjoyed the conference. Sunset Overdrive and Halo should keep me busy this fall.

 

[Blue Volt]

Microsoft doesn't really have a lot of big first party studios. 343, Turn 10, Rare, Lionhead and Black Tusk are the only ones really doing big name games, and the rest either do smaller or Kinect Games.

Microsoft has amazing second and third-party relationships though, and that seems to be more of their focus. Sony and Nintendo definitely put a lot of faith in first and sometimes second-party stuff instead.

 

[Lemmy]

To be honest, I'm always a little confused when people point to Sony WWS as an amazing set of world class studios. I can definitely understand Naughty Dog having that sort of acclaim, but it seems like their reputation seems to simply spill onto the other teams, that really haven't been putting out much to deserve it.

Kind of like Bungie was for MS first party from the sounds of it.

Losing Bungie was pretty much the worst thing that ever happened to MS first party. Such a stupid thing to let happen.

 

[rrc1594]

Kind of like Bungie was for MS first party from the sounds of it.

Losing Bungie was pretty much the worst thing that ever happened to MS first party. Such a stupid thing to let happen.

That's true

 

[RayMaker]

Well, its very competitive.

 

[USC-fan]

We still dont know what some of the first party teams are doing.

It seem ms is betting on secord party developed games instead of investing into more AAA first party teams. This has hurt them in the past.

I would like to see them invest more in first party teams.

 

[Leyasu]

I cant wait to see what rare are cooking...

I cant wait to download SO day one!! The game looks amazing.

But I would like to microsoft invest in or build up another couple of studios

 

[W.S.]

As I said in my post, they should acquire developers but I can't see them buying anyone who has massive multiple teams hence why probably weren't in the running for Bioware when they only wanted Mass Effect and that team.

Playground and Remedy - two studios that have one main team and a small mobile team (not sure Playground have ever released a mobile game anyway) make the most sense to me although you'd have to wonder if MS needed to own two racing studios? Part of the reason why they never bought Bizarre

Remedy make a lot of sense to me, I wonder what their financial situation is too, MS own Quantum Break and whilst we don't know what the details are in their deal with Remedy over that or Alan Wake i'd guess its partly because Remedy probably couldn't afford to fund it themselves?

Ruffian always struck me as bizarre, because they wouldn't have existed without Microsofts backing in the first place for Crackdown 2 and they do a ton of contract work for them ranging from Kinect stuff on 360 to KSR, Halo Spartan Assault on XB1 and the Halo 3/4 ports on XB1 too... but their new game is with another published they said? Odd.

Microsoft being seemingly uninterested to acquire developers they work with will always puzzle me especially in situations where it made sense (like Bizarre being for sale as they were close to running out of money).

I think those would be good studio acquisitions as well but maybe Phil just wants to keep it the way it is so that everyone is happy doing both special projects for them as well having the option to work independently.

There's no way to really tell how financially viable it would be for Microsoft to own the studios but I'm sure that if the studios want to be bought out they'd let it be known.

 

[W.S.]

Kind of like Bungie was for MS first party from the sounds of it.

Losing Bungie was pretty much the worst thing that ever happened to MS first party. Such a stupid thing to let happen.

That's true

Well Bungie didn't want to make Halo forever so it's understandable why they wanted to go independent. Destiny is also on Xbox One/360 so Microsoft still gets Bungie developed games and everyone wins.

On the downside, Bungie's lost some key staff with Marcus Lehto, Marty O'Donnell, Joseph Staten no longer with them so they're not quite the same studio they were either.

 

[reKon]

This kinda goes along with you point... but why the fuck would I care about God of War 3, when Bayonetta and DMC4 were significantly better anyways?



I liked Halo 4's SP (didn't bother with MP), but I can agree that they have quite a bit to prove. Turn 10 though? Everything they release last gen slapped Polyphony around critically, and their current gen rush job still sits only 1 metacritic point short of GT6. I'm not sure how anyone can claim they don't have a reputation for making great games. Don't really have anything to say about Lionhead, as I'd never really bothered with Fable I've just recently started the Anniverary version of Fable 1, and it seems good enough. Nothing amazing though.

To be honest, I'm always a little confused when people point to Sony WWS as an amazing set of world class studios. I can definitely understand Naughty Dog having that sort of acclaim, but it seems like their reputation seems to simply spill onto the other teams, that really haven't been putting out much to deserve it. I guess there's also Media Molecule.. although I'm not sure how much of that has to do with lack of competition, as LittleBigPlanet kinda sucks as a platformer, and is mostly great as a Project Spark style creation tool. Most of the teams are hardly Nintendo tier. People give 343i shit, but Guerilla Games need to step their shit up to be compared with them, let alone Bungie.



I know this is an unpopular opinion. But I found Viva Piñata to be better than anything Rare made for Nintendo outside of GoldenEye/Perfect Dark, so a new entry in that series (or Kameo) would be great imo. Most of Rare's other IP's I feel would be better handled by other devs. Killer Instinct 2013 is so far beyond either of the Killer Instinct games that Rare themselves created, that I don't even think having the old talent makes them the prime candidates for much of their catalog.

You really want to go there? You know these games are considered great for different reasons. DMC4/Bayonetta is much more a like in terms of arcade-style action.

That's funny considering that Diddy Kong Racing was vastly superior to Mario Kart 64 and many other kart racers in the following years. It rivals the local multiplayer kart racer's today, especially with the competitive multiplayer mode. And then there's of course there's Jet Force Gemini, the Banjo Series, and DK 64 (which gets too much hate that I don't understand). I don't know if it's just genre thing for you, or if it's your opinion that all these different games that Rare made were legitimately not as fun/high quality as Viva Pinata. I actually replayed some of Banjo Kazooie of an emulator and it was actually still fun. Rare just had it back then.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Well Bungie didn't want to make Halo forever so it's understandable why they wanted to go independent. Destiny is also on Xbox One/360 so Microsoft still gets Bungie developed games and everyone wins.

On the downside, Bungie's lost some key staff with Marcus Lehto, Marty O'Donnell, Joseph Staten no longer with them so they're not quite the same studio they were either.

Microsoft loosing Bungie is like if Sony lost Naughty or Nintendo loosing EAD (one of them not all).

Massive blow. If Bungie wanted to work on a new IP (judging from Destiny a fantastic one) then why was MS so adamant on not letting them. Sony lets ND create new IP's for instance.

 

[Lemmy]

Microsoft loosing Bungie is like if Sony lost Naughty or Nintendo loosing EAD (one of them not all).

Massive blow. If Bungie wanted to work on a new IP (judging from Destiny a fantastic one) then why was MS so adamant on not letting them. Sony lets ND create new IP's for instance.

Well, setting aside that Nintendo losing any single studio would hurt, but wouldn't be nearly as devastating as the Sony/MS examples you mention, I agree.

I can't see any reason for MS to not have let Bungie work on something new if they wanted to. If they were really so desperate to keep milking that Halo cow, then why not just create 343i in addition to Bungie, rather than in place of them? They'd have been able to have their cake and eat it too.

Only reason I can think of is that they wanted the Halo IP above all else, and Bungie were less important to them than that was.

After Halo 4 though... I really think they fucked up big time.

 

[Steverulez]

Microsoft loosing Bungie is like if Sony lost Naughty or Nintendo loosing EAD (one of them not all).

Massive blow. If Bungie wanted to work on a new IP (judging from Destiny a fantastic one) then why was MS so adamant on not letting them. Sony lets ND create new IP's for instance.

Microsoft did let them, and they proceeded to screw up what was then Halo 2 and they had to get those people back on Halo 2 to turn the boat around. If you have a cash cow like that and a cow that proves it can't do both, I guess you only really have one option (from their point of view).

They should have let them go back to it but I guess the relationship was probably already becoming strained at that point

 

[rrc1594]

MS's Studios that we don't know what they are working on

Good Science Studio
Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment
Leap Experience Pioneers
Platform Next Studios
Lift London
BigPark( Their website is under construction)
Twisted Pixel
Rare

This is sad, cause most are known for being Kinect studios. I think Lift London is going show their game at Gamescom if I had to guess. Their is no way in hell Rare is making another Kinect game. My point is their is a lot mystery in MS's First Party studios, only time well tell.

Looking at this list Fuck you Don Mattrick

 

[Steverulez]

MS's Studios that we don't know what they are working on

Good Science Studio
Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment
Leap Experience Pioneers
Platform Next Studios
Lift London
BigPark( Their website is under construction)
Twisted Pixel
Rare

BigPark are making apps anyway. KALE are doing something thats like 1 vs 100 (or were anyway) and Good Science are a strange one, everyone who has been linked to LXP or Platform Next has worked at Good Science, so I wouldn't be surprised if they just got effectively rebranded, not getting my hopes up for LXP though, could well be Kinect or AR/VR

The artwork for Twisted Pixels new game looks interesting though

 

[Doffen]

Crackdown has never been exciting

 

[W.S.]

Microsoft loosing Bungie is like if Sony lost Naughty or Nintendo loosing EAD (one of them not all).

Massive blow. If Bungie wanted to work on a new IP (judging from Destiny a fantastic one) then why was MS so adamant on not letting them. Sony lets ND create new IP's for instance.

That's a good question for Microsoft/Phil Spencer as only they would know the answer.

I think from a business standpoint all they cared about was the Halo franchise so as long as they had ownership they had the big score. Personally I would have let them do newer IP's outside of Halo but that's just me. 343i has a bunch of ex Bungie staff alongside the newer hires though so they did retain a good bit of talent. Plus Staten is back with Microsoft handling their franchises so even if he's not doing anything with Halo he's a good creative ideas guy.

 

[rrc1594]

BigPark are making apps anyway. KALE are doing something thats like 1 vs 100 (or were anyway) and Good Science are a strange one, everyone who has been linked to LXP or Platform Next has worked at Good Science, so I wouldn't be surprised if they just got effectively rebranded, not getting my hopes up for LXP though, could well be Kinect or AR/VR

The artwork for Twisted Pixels new game looks interesting though

Well then their first party studios are a mess, if that's the case. Makes sense that they are going to other developers to work on their IPs

 

[W.S.]

MS's Studios that we don't know what they are working on

Good Science Studio
Kids and Lifestyle Entertainment
Leap Experience Pioneers
Platform Next Studios
Lift London
BigPark( Their website is under construction)
Twisted Pixel
Rare

This is sad, cause most are known for being Kinect studios. I think Lift London is going show their game at Gamescom if I had to guess. Their is no way in hell Rare is making another Kinect game. My point is their is a lot mystery in MS's First Party studios, only time well tell.

Looking at this list Fuck you Don Mattrick

Sadly out of those I would only expect anything worthwhile out of Twisted Pixel and Rare. The rest are really vague entertainment developers that haven't really shown anything outside of some Kinect work and some logos.

I'd like to be proven wrong but time will only tell.

 

[Steverulez]

Well then their first party studios are a mess, if that's the case. Makes sense that they are going to other developers to work on their IPs

What about what I've said makes them a mess out of curiosity?

I will say, that buying BigPark, getting them to make Kinect Joy Ride, then Joyride Turbo for XBLA (which was actually pretty good) then gutting them to make them make apps always struck me as stupid/odd but thats Mattrick for you.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I feel good about dat Phantom Dust

 

[rrc1594]

What about what I've said makes them a mess out of curiosity?

I will say, that buying BigPark, getting them to make Kinect Joy Ride, then Joyride Turbo for XBLA (which was actually pretty good) then gutting them to make them make apps always struck me as stupid/odd but thats Mattrick for you.

Mess was a hyperbole, but it feels like I don't see next big new IP coming form any of those studios.

 

[Steverulez]

Mess was a hyperbole, but it feels like I don't see next big new IP coming form any of those studios.

Difficult to know about most of them (LXP/Platform Next particularly) but Lionhead are on a new IP and so are Twisted Pixel, at the least I think we'll get good stuff, not everything needs to be a big new thing

 

[rrc1594]

Difficult to know about most of them (LXP/Platform Next particularly) but Lionhead are on a new IP and so are Twisted Pixel, at the least I think we'll get good stuff, not everything needs to be a big new thing

If you had to pick which, studio will reveal something at Gamescom.

 

[Synth]

You really want to go there? You know these games are considered great for different reasons. DMC4/Bayonetta is much more a like in terms of arcade-style action.

That's funny considering that Diddy Kong Racing was vastly superior to Mario Kart 64 and many other kart racers in the following years. It rivals the local multiplayer kart racer's today, especially with the competitive multiplayer mode. And then there's of course there's Jet Force Gemini, the Banjo Series, and DK 64 (which gets too much hate that I don't understand). I don't know if it's just genre thing for you, or if it's your opinion that all these different games that Rare made were legitimately not as fun/high quality as Viva Pinata. I actually replayed some of Banjo Kazooie of an emulator and it was actually still fun. Rare just had it back then.

I'd personally lump God of War, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Blade, Heavenly Sword and so on all under the same umbrella. Some of them have differing focuses (some more cinematic, others focus on deeper combat systems etc), but they don't differ to the point where if they all released the same day, they wouldn't be in direct competition with each other to fill a specific style of game. Out of all of those, I feel that Bayonetta and DMC4 were massively better than any of the others (especially Bayonetta), to the point where using GoW3 to write off Ninja Blade becomes a bit pointless. Especially if Fable and The Witcher are similar enough to be considered an either/or scenario.

As for Rare's stuff. It's not that I didn't like what they released back on Nintendo's consoles, more that I really, REALLY like Viva Piñata (one of my favourite games of the last gen). Being better than MK64 is no real accomplishment though, because that game SUCKED! Easily the worst Mario Kart entry ever, and one of the worst kart racers period. I'm not too fond of any of their Donkey Kong games either, neither 2D or 3D. Banjo's pretty awesome to this day however. I like to pretend Starfox Adventures never happened.

Besides, I did say that I was aware that it's an unpopular opinion.

 

[bigboss370]

Thank Fucking You. I always felt that way.

I feel the complete opposite. WWS offers rich experiences while at the same time providing a diverse library. Uncharted, GoW, Killzone, LBP, Tearaway, Gran Turismo, Heavy Rain + Beyond, Infamous, Motorstorm....all great, top tier games and all different from one another.

 

[stay gold]

I'm happy with the games they have announced currently, but they could do with rebuilding Rare into a real studio again to add a bit more diversity to their lineup (hopefully Phil Harrison's recent comments will lead to this).

I'd be surprised if they don't end up buying Playground. The asset sharing between them and Turn 10 seems like too big an advantage to risk losing.

 

[Steverulez]

If you had to pick which, studio will reveal something at Gamescom.

Twisted Pixel I guess. They finished Lococycle on 360 and then Double Helix ported it to XB1/PC, and they put concept art/image in Lococycle about their next game, I think its closer than we know and they're not a big studio either. Lift London too perhaps but their first project is touch devices anyway.

I don't think a lot of those studios are close to announcing their next games unfortunately, i'd expect quite a few announcements next year though

 

[Synth]

I feel the complete opposite. WWS offers rich experiences while at the same time providing a diverse library. Uncharted, GoW, Killzone, LBP, Tearaway, Gran Turismo, Heavy Rain + Beyond, Infamous, Motorstorm....all great, top tier games and all different from one another.

I think you could put up a similar list of games from many publishers, not even just first parties really. I mean, we all have preferences, but I find it hard to count something like Killzone as top tier when compared to other games it goes up against. It's mostly Uncharted, The Last of Us and LBP that I would highlight as games that are outright better than their competition.. and in LBP's case I wouldn't even have been able to identify any competition before Project Spark (which doesn't even have its features finalised yet).

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

I think you could put up a similar list of games from many publishers, not even just first parties really. I mean, we all have preferences, but I find it hard to count something like Killzone as top tier when compared to other games it goes up against. It's mostly Uncharted, The Last of Us and LBP that I would highlight as games that are outright better than their competition.. and in LBP's case I wouldn't even have been able to identify any competition before Project Spark (which doesn't even have its features finalised yet).

Pretty much. Not to mention that Heavy Rain and Beyond don't fall under the umbrella of Sony WWS (Quantic Dream is an independent company), and LBP, MotorStorm and Infamous had also been released before Sony acquired Media Molecule, Evolution and Sucker Punch.

What I do like about Sony's studios, however (apart from the already mentioned Naughty Dog, and Media Molecule), is their Japan Studio. They alone are responsible for some of the more unique and more interesting PlayStation releases, even if the majority of their recent output can't really be considered AAA. Similarly, I believe Press Play and Twisted Pixel are currently the most exciting studios in Microsoft's stable, and I'm saying that as a huge fan of Microsoft's flagship franchises and the big studios that make them.

 

[abadguy]

I am curious about what LXP and Platform Next are going to bring to the table. We know next to nothing about these studios or what they will be working on. Not too long ago Spencer mentioned something to the effect of Unannounced internal studios working on projects, i am guessing he meant these two.

I thought they would maybe make an appearance at E3. Maybe something at Gamescom.