Phil Spencer: "I know we have to take risks [after Scalebound cancellation],"

Wait a second...

They spent their entire game funding budget on Minecraft. That has to be it.

that was apparently a Microsoft acquisition but sure

i guess it probably could have had an impact when microsoft decides how much money they let xbox play with for a year
 
Guerrilla Games was allowed to make a new big game, why not 343?

Frankly that's exactly what should be happening. If he is serious about this The Coalition and 343 should both be given free reigns to start new work on new IP. There is a shit load of talent in both those studios and they are stuck on franchises we've been playing forever.

I get that Gears and Halo are somewhat guaranteed hits still. That's fine, continue work on Gears 5 and Halo 6, but let a smaller group inside those studios begin pre-production on new IP and let's see some original fresh content.
 
lol now I want a trollquote version with Kamiya's picture, Miyamoto's quote and Kojima's name.

GAF got you covered

xEEvvA0l.jpg
 
Interesting there seems to be more backlash with Phil Spencer over Scalebounds cancellation than actually shuttering Lionhead.

I wonder if its a result of cumulative actions, or just GAF think more of P* than they did Lionhead
 
Frankly that's exactly what should be happening. If he is serious about this The Coalition and 343 should both be given free reigns to start new work on new IP. There is a shit load of talent in both those studios and they are stuck on franchises we've been playing forever.

I get that Gears and Halo are somewhat guaranteed hits still. That's fine, continue work on Gears 5 and Halo 6, but let a smaller group inside those studios begin pre-production on new IP and let's see some original fresh content.

Black Tusk getting moved as a gears factory and their new ip cancelled told me MS has not changed.
 
It's too late.

Its never too late, there will be a point where it'll be recouped, what a narrow minded view of business .

(At this point, anything Phil says just needs to be ignored. He's a nice sounding guy who mouths platitudes but ultimately is a completely empty suit. How many times do we have to hear him say this crap before we realise it's just lies? He's becoming Molneux-Esc at this point).

No not at all, Scorpio and Xbox one S are lies? This is hyperbole, only thing that needs to be ignored is empty, misinformed posts like this.

Black Tusk getting moved as a gears factory and their new ip cancelled told me MS has not changed.

Black Tusk being led by Rod Fergerson is a huge coup which resulted in a hit. This is weak argument, and i doubt you were interested in the game apart from using it to criticise MS.
 
It does sound hollow. But i still appreciate Phil Spencers commitment to good PR. Hes saying all the right things publicly and he seems to actually take pride in his work.

Hopefully his behind the scenes work is just as good
 
People still blaming Mattrick? Holy cow man....Phil was all a part of that, and he was head of their studios for like 10 years, this is beyond one guy.

I specifically said Phil was apart of the Xbox one. But he is one of the only ones of that core Xbox one team that stuck around. That says something to me.
 
Yes, but ND was also allowed to make TLoU. Anyway, I don't really care, but both Halo and Gears are no where near the juggernauts they were last gen, thats for sure.

Definitely, and that's a huge problem MS can't solve short-term. And I'm not sure there will be a long term if Scorpio fails.
 
Am I the only one that believes Scorpio will be the launch of Phill's actual run Xbox head. I mean, yes he was on the team for the Xbox one, but he wasn't the head.

He was made chief only three years ago, closer to 3 and a half.

He is still cleaning up what Mattrick did. Green lighting new games and studios take serious time. I'd expect his vision is just now finally getting ready to be shown

Just my thoughts
He was head of MS first party though wasn't he? That seems to be where most issues come from now.
The console is great but it has largely been my EA access machine because i play multiplatform on Pro/PC and i still hope they have some good exclusives up their sleeves(Not really into Halo and Gears). The relatively poor software output definitely made me much more sceptic about investing 400€ or more into Scorpio.
 
Also I don't think opening studios and throwing them ips to make is smart either as some think. You can take risks with ips with a third party relationship, just don't cock it up with crazy requests or crazy timeline goals. Ask a third party studio what they could do with one of your ips and if they happen to give you a cool pitch, but let's say they don't or can't do multiplayer don't try to shove it in
 
Ill believe it when i see it. Hopefully it leads to less moneyhatting timed exclusives and more effort into expanding internal studios
 
Because Halo is more important to Microsoft than Killzone is to Sony.

They wouldn't have that mindset if they were more open as a games division and havin diversity in their software library was part of their culture and message as a division.

They may have had many startups and projects behind the scenes get started only to have the MS corporate hammer to shut it down when they looked at cost.

Xbox division needs to just be its own thing and operate outside of it's big brother. If they could get a restart as a division with a big chunk of money to restructure the culture, studios, and people within xbox I THINK it would be for all the better. Just like how when Kaz took over things started to turn around not from a business perspective, but moral within the company, and look at where Playstation is now.
 
Guerrilla Games was allowed to make a new big game, why not 343?

Killzone is not Halo and Sony is not MS. By that logic why doesn't Treyarch try their hand at an RPG or action adventure game? I mean Rockstar has had great success making various games. So why not Treyarch?
 
Black Tusk getting moved as a gears factory and their new ip cancelled told me MS has not changed.
Well they said they were given the option and choose Gears to go with a safe option and more guaranteed future. In hindsight probably a good idea with MS's luck launching new IPs so far.
 
Stop listening to this hype man. Ignore the words and look at the games....you happy with the line line up? That's all that matters.

Granted it's a bit unfair to reduce Spencer's job to that of cheerleader. It's a difficult job with an array of challenges...my point is we can only judge the output.
 
I wonder how much power he really has.

Seriously. I highly doubt he had anything to do with the Scalebound cancellation. That's more a corporate big wig decision (i.e, someone who doesn't actually "know" the games industry, only the numbers).

Anyways... this was a poor time to say "Microsoft needs to take more risks"
 
Because Halo is more important to Microsoft than Killzone is to Sony.

Sure, but after creating Uncharted 2 many of the key creative people were allowed to break off and start work on a new IP, which turned out to be one of the best first-party decisions Sony has ever made and resulted in a massive new franchise for them. This is the kind of thing MS needs to allow, even if it means we go 3-4 years without a Gears or Halo instalment.
 
Interesting there seems to be more backlash with Phil Spencer over Scalebounds cancellation than actually shuttering Lionhead.

I wonder if its a result of cumulative actions, or just GAF think more of P* than they did Lionhead
Lionhead made two good Fable games, one kinda okay Fable game, and were developing a Fable game that had a bad beta. That output doesn't illicit the same kind of reaction that a developer like Platinum does
 
Unless it is a multiplayer game which can be utilized for micro transactions, probably not going to happen. Xbox doesn't have the budget or the backing from the company to pull out a TLoU type of game, unless something changed VERY recently.
 
Black Tusk getting moved as a gears factory and their new ip cancelled told me MS has not changed.

Oh I agree, its not a good sign. Same thing with 343 just becoming a Halo factory.

Interesting there seems to be more backlash with Phil Spencer over Scalebounds cancellation than actually shuttering Lionhead.

I wonder if its a result of cumulative actions, or just GAF think more of P* than they did Lionhead

I think its a couple things. Lionhead had been on a downward trend for a while and things like Fable 3, Fable Kinect, and Fable Legends had really alienated the fan base. Then pair that with this becoming a disturbing trend of MS shuttering publicly revealed projects down and I think people are becoming increasingly unhappy with the way things are going down.
 
Poor Phil. He is in a lose / lose situation at this point. Scorpio has been built up to be Xbox's saving grace by the xbox community. So much so that I don't think it is possible to live up to the expectations.

If Scorpio isn't $399, And at this point MS won't sell hardware at a loss so odds are it won't be.

People will complain

If Their E3 conference only shows known games and doesn't have any surprises other than Halo 6, Forza 7, Crackdown, Sea Of Thieves, Cuphead, State of Decay, Voodoo Vince Remaster, and Phantom Dust Remaster.

People will complain

And finally unless Scorpio's graphics aren't a generational leap from PS4 (or even Pro for that matter).

People will complain

Phil has done a lot of good to the Xbox brand the last 2 years, but he is fighting a serious uphill battle. arguably more so then when he was appointed as head of xbox. Some of it is self inflicted, but most of it was conjured from hyperbole from the Xbox community.

There isn't really winning scenario here for Phil.
 
Watching Microsoft's E3 conference this year is going to be a slightly awkward affair. New games will be announced and I'll be wondering if what is shown will actually ever see the light of day or not.

I feel the same way. For sure it'll be a while before I get hyped by one of their announcements. All I can do is wait and see now. Sitting around shitting on them isn't going to get games into my PC any faster so I'll say it once. You look like shit right now MS. Like, embarrassingly so. Tighten the fuck up.
 
He was head of MS first party though wasn't he? That seems to be where most issues come from now.
The console is great but it has largely been my EA access machine because i play multiplatform on Pro/PC and i still hope they have some good exclusives up their sleeves(Not really into Halo and Gears). The relatively poor software output definitely made me much more sceptic about investing 400€ or more into Scorpio.

Fair enough. I'd say that's a good argument.

And I was wrong. He hasn't even been head for 3 years yet. Will be in March of 2017.
 
Sure, but after creating Uncharted 2 many of the key creative people were allowed to break off and start work on a new IP, which turned out to be one of the best first-party decisions Sony has ever made and resulted in a massive new franchise for them. This is the kind of thing MS needs to allow, even if it means we go 3-4 years without a Gears or Halo instalment.

Lol I was going to reply with tlou as well.
 
Depends on what was risky about it. Sounds like there's only rumor and speculation, and if there was something truly shitty about MS then we would have heard that direct from PG by now.
That is unlikely with NDAs and all that plus they would probably want a decent relationship with them.
 
Its never too late, there will be a point where it'll be recouped, what a narrow minded view of business .



No not at all, Scorpio and Xbox one S are lies? This is hyperbole, only thing that needs to be ignored is empty, misinformed posts like this.



Black Tusk being led by Rod Fergerson is a huge coup which resulted in a hit. This is weak argument, and i doubt you were interested in the game apart from using it to criticise MS.

Gears 4 was not a a commercial hit. It under-performed to my knowledge, but they were given a choice to continue on shanghai or make gears.
 
Its never too late, there will be a point where it'll be recouped, what a narrow minded view of business .



No not at all, Scorpio and Xbox one S are lies? This hyperbole, only thing that needs to be ignored is empty, misinformed posts like this.

It's too late because games take a long time to develop and right now they have Sea of Thieves and that's it. They showed off games in 2014 that we probably won't see this year. You can't just magic this stuff up, if Ms wanted a solid line up of exclusives for this year they needed to start investing several years ago - which they didn't. If Phil actually started doing what he keeps saying he is going to do (but never actually does) then we'll see the fruits of this in 2019.

Which, like I said, it was too late.

Remember, it was Sony who kept investing in games even during the difficult PS3 times when the division was losing money hand over fist, which resulted in a fantastic line up all the way to the end of the PS3 lifespan and then straight into the PS4. Meanwhile Microsoft made a ton of cash off Kinect and spent it on... ? They kept shutting studios even when they had money!

And my point re him lying is that this is not the first time Phil has given us the same song and dance about Xbox games. Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me. God knows what it is for the nth time, but I think my point is clear.
 
Someone needs to solve this problem fucking fast in the industry. Its getting ludicrous announcing a game 18-36+ months out from release.

Simplest way would be to pitch multiple concepts to customers at an event like E3 and then hold a poll/vote about which one to make. That way you get to build hype. Have cool CGI trailers and Concept art. Yet never actually have to show anything for years. Its a brilliant PR move because you can dedicate 30 minutes of a 1hr conference to this stuff.

It also helps studios hold their ground as they have a consumer mandade to actually make the games.

If you were a bit more insidious you could make people vote by selling T shirts and other merch. That way you could profit off the hype and eventually come up with a metric that uses those sales numbers to set the projects budget
 
Time to diversify a bit.

Give turn 10 another year or two for the next forza game. Another year with the next forza horizon.

Expand out halo and gears. Add sub teams - people can fly and ex-bungie people would be my pick.

Bring back fable. Bring back banjo kazooie. Bring Back perfect dark.

Invest more in indies. Bring back xbox japan and let them run it, let them work with japanese studio. It's obvious that microsoft studios has a difficult time with japanese developers (that's being kind).

Let developers make the games they want. Don't force multiplayer or co-op.
 
Its never too late, there will be a point where it'll be recouped, what a narrow minded view of business .



No not at all, Scorpio and Xbox one S are lies? This is hyperbole, only thing that needs to be ignored is empty, misinformed posts like this.



Black Tusk being led by Rod Fergerson is a huge coup which resulted in a hit. This is weak argument, and i doubt you were interested in the game apart from using it to criticise MS.

Man you need to relax, defensive much? I am def interested in new ip's , not more gears, halo...then I would buy an xbox. Don't pretend to know me. Take your console warrior bs elsewhere.

Gears was also not a big performer...hate to tell you.
 
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