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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

Would make me pretty happy if it was a full AAA ReCore sequel. But I'm not holding my breath

I'd be happy if they just fucking finished Recore. I stopped halfway through in the hopes that they eventually fix all the shit and put all the content in at some point. Soooo irritated that they dumped that game out before it was finished. Could have put it in Game Preview or something if they needed additional funds to finish it. Game controls and plays fantastically, had a great look, and a neat little story. What a colossal fuckup.
 
I'd be happy if they just fucking finished Recore. I stopped halfway through in the hopes that they eventually fix all the shit and put all the content in at some point. Soooo irritated that they dumped that game out before it was finished. Could have put it in Game Preview or something if they needed additional funds to finish it. Game controls and plays fantastically, had a great look, and a neat little story. What a colossal fuckup.

Could agree more. I loved the first 8-10 hours of running around. Then I hit the tower and stopped for the same reason as you. Turns out they have been working on it and we will see what it is soon (was hoping for E3 news but w/e)

Yeah that franchise has real potential I hope it doesn't get dropped.
 
Yep I got to the tower but wasn't willing to get however many orbs I needed to get through all the gates so I eventually hit a wall. I Youtubed the ending and traded it in.

ReCore is an unfinished 5-6/10 game that could have been a 9/10 tentpole exclusive and the start of a great franchise.
 
didn't they have console exclusivity, but then abandoned it. ashens is coming to PS4 as far i last heard.

Yes, it used to be full console exclusive the same as Cuphead, but as Chobel says it's now 'Console Launch Exclusive' which is a way of saying 'timed'. Also, Annapurna were not publishing it until recently, and I suspect a condition of their investment was that it changed from a lifetime Xbox console exclusive to timed.
 
Is it safe to talk about that job posting in here, lol.

It's got to be either Rare, Playground, Gobo or....

Or it's nothing. I've lived through Microsoft Studios Victoria, LXP & Black Tusk. 5 years since they said they would expand... We got Minecraft and Gears.

This might just be a skin pack for Minecraft.
 
Or it's nothing. I've lived through Microsoft Studios Victoria, LXP & Black Tusk. 5 years since they said they would expand... We got Minecraft and Gears.

This might just be a skin pack for Minecraft.

The description certainly doesn't sound like that.
 
Or it's nothing. I've lived through Microsoft Studios Victoria, LXP & Black Tusk. 5 years since they said they would expand... We got Minecraft and Gears.

This might just be a skin pack for Minecraft.

I would imagine that Microsoft has changed the process that they go through to set a studio up - possibly headhunt the main brass such as studio head so they have the right management in place to stop another Lionhead situation with poor studio management.
 
Ashen is now "console launch exclusive"
The dev told Geoff on stage that it was flat out exclusive.


Yes, it used to be full console exclusive the same as Cuphead, but as Chobel says it's now 'Console Launch Exclusive' which is a way of saying 'timed'. Also, Annapurna were not publishing it until recently, and I suspect a condition of their investment was that it changed from a lifetime Xbox console exclusive to timed.
Not sure why you keep thinking this. When Annapurna picked up publishing from Sony on What Remains of Edith Finch they did not make it multi platform. If those games had contract beforehand they don't magically disappear
 
The dev told Geoff on stage that it was flat out exclusive.



Not sure why you keep thinking this. When Annapurna picked up publishing from Sony on What Remains of Edith Finch they did not make it multi platform.

But why is it labled as console launch exclusive. This term is used for timed exclusives, they would have called it console exclusive if its a lifetime exclusivity
 
I trust MS over the devs, the later who are most likely under contractual obligations.
Ya I saw the above link which kinda destroys the basis of my argument anyways lol. Sit down Banjo

Sony forked like 2/3rd of the budget for Edith Finch, so naturally exclusivity for a window of time is expected.

ASSUMING Ashen is indeed CLE & the dev misspoke , I expect a lengthy exclusivity window too since MS did pay a certain amount of $$$ to the devs 2 years ago.
Which kinda makes you wonder. If the game is as special as previewers have been saying why would MS not pick up publishing if the dev needed more help? Odd they would just let Annapurna grab it. I digress though
 
The dev told Geoff on stage that it was flat out exclusive.



Not sure why you keep thinking this. When Annapurna picked up publishing from Sony on What Remains of Edith Finch they did not make it multi platform. If those games had contract beforehand they don't magically disappear

they released it on steam which is a different platform but im assuming it doesn't count.
 
The dev told Geoff on stage that it was flat out exclusive.



Not sure why you keep thinking this. When Annapurna picked up publishing from Sony on What Remains of Edith Finch they did not make it multi platform. If those games had contract beforehand they don't magically disappear


You are right. Geof asked him the question and he stated it clearly. The game is an Xbox One console exclusive title. Check @ 45sec mark. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl0kyka9k6g&feature=youtu.be Maybe it will come to steam at a later date.
 
The dev told Geoff on stage that it was flat out exclusive.

Not sure why you keep thinking this. When Annapurna picked up publishing from Sony on What Remains of Edith Finch they did not make it multi platform. If those games had contract beforehand they don't magically disappear

Well, one key difference is that Sony still appear to own the IP for Edith Finch, so I expect it's unlikely to show up on any non-Sony consoles. Ashen was never MS's IP so who knows what's going on with it behind the scenes. I am speculating that the agreement between the developer Aurora 44 & MS fell through or changed, and Annapurna picked it up for publishing but renegotiated the contract. Sorry if that bothers you, I guess?

Also, the "Console Launch Exclusive" text before showing it at their E3 conference is to me more telling than the dev stating it won't come to to other consoles - especially when that specifically differs from the text used with Cuphead, for comparison. I expect they're either contractually bound not to or at least discouraged from talking about potential ports to other consoles down the line.

But either way, this is all just speculation, and time will tell. We're probably near enough 12 months from Ashen's first release, let alone anything else.
 
This whole Ashen conversation has no head/tails because it's either you trust that the "CLE" line from MS PR/press conference, or you trust the "console exclusive" line from the devs at Geoff's show.

Both sides have been wrong before. We've seens devs fuck up, we've seen publishers fuck up. Who is it this time? We don't know until someone clarifies.

And it is the one thing they've not clarified at all, looking at Twitter, so who the fuck knows at this point.

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Which kinda makes you wonder. If the game is as special as previewers have been saying why would MS not pick up publishing if the dev needed more help? Odd they would just let Annapurna grab it. I digress though

A mediocre AAA game matters more to a platform owner than a special indie game.

I mean, Edith Finch is a special game too, and Sony has funded the game 70-80% through before pulling out. They surely saw that it was an excellent game of its caliber. It's different from Rime, if we believe the rumours to be true.

Yet they didn't give a fuck and let Annapurna have it, in its final year. Even after having funded the game for so long.

Sometimes publishers will make cold business decisions, not creative decisions.
 
A mediocre AAA game matters more to a platform owner than a special indie game.

I mean, Edith Finch is a special game too, and Sony has funded the game 70-80% through before pulling out. They surely saw that it was an excellent game of its caliber. It's different from Rime, if we believe the rumours to be true.

Yet they didn't give a fuck and let Annapurna have it, in its final year. Even after having funded the game for so long.

Sometimes publishers will make cold business decisions, not creative decisions.

It was not that simple, and Sony didnt just let the game go, Annapurna bought the game from them
 
Which kinda makes you wonder. If the game is as special as previewers have been saying why would MS not pick up publishing if the dev needed more help? Odd they would just let Annapurna grab it. I digress though

Has MS "switched over" an ID@Xbox game to publish it themselves? Trying to think of if this has happened. I gotta imagine they would have it as an option in their playbook if they spotted something really special that the dev needed a lot more resources on and MS could see it becoming a franchise for them.
 
The opposite happened with Below, where MS originally was going to publish it, but when they announced the ID program, Capy asked if they could do that instead and MS agreed (if I remember correctly).
 
Has MS "switched over" an ID@Xbox game to publish it themselves? Trying to think of if this has happened. I gotta imagine they would have it as an option in their playbook if they spotted something really special that the dev needed a lot more resources on and MS could see it becoming a franchise for them.

No, but they have partially funded Cuphead and Ashen so I just find it weird that the games are promising enough to help develop, but they won't commit to full publishing for whatever reason.
 
This whole Ashen conversation has no head/tails because it's either you trust that the "CLE" line from MS PR/press conference, or you trust the "console exclusive" line from the devs at Geoff's show.

Those two statements aren't necessarily contradictory. "Console launch exclusive" could mean a contracted timed-exclusive, but it could also mean a game that's launching on Xbox ahead of other consoles for other reasons - PUBG, for instance, is likely coming to Xbox first because they have a formal early access program (just like ARK did), or smaller indie devs may just choose to prioritise one platform during the initial development period due to lacking the resources to do concurrent multi-plat dev, and then maybe consider ports elsewhere later after launching the game on the lead platform. For the indie games that were tagged as console launch exclusive, I'm betting that the latter case is by far the most common scenario.

For the latter cases, those games will be launching exclusively on Xbox, and in some cases might never see the light of day elsewhere (if the sales don't hit certain milestones they may not be able to financially justify ports, for example), but since there's no contractual obligation to remain exclusive forever, MS can't call them full, no caveats, console exclusives... even if some of those devs may well consider their game a de-facto exclusive, since they're not yet planning to release it elsewhere (although if they hit it big, they may well change their mind later and port to PS4 simply because it'd be easy money).
 
So I take it that Phil Spencer basically lies all the time. Not too long ago he had said that he wanted a strong first party lineup like that of Nintendo's. Looks like that is not happening
 
So I take it that Phil Spencer basically lies all the time. Not too long ago he had said that he wanted a strong first party lineup like that of Nintendo's. Looks like that is not happening

Stated that in August 2015 - assuming he has full financial control 3 years to develop IP which has been dormant could take up to 5 years if new IP.

If he has capital expenditure granted on provision of increased spending per user, see Theme Park Industry. Then he hasn't lied its how modern businesses work when Wall St is king.
 
Of course take this with a grain of salt, but a big italian site said that the new IP is from playground games.

http://multiplayer.it/notizie/18504...microsoft-sviluppato-da-playground-games.html

Basically job recruitments started in winter, it's a big project, they're searching for very experienced developers. It's an open world with a solid focus on narrative.


I wonder if they are using same engine they used in Forza Horizon 3, I swear the first time I saw the jungle in FH3 I said "man, imagine an adventure with that engine and graphics.."

In Playground we trust
 
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