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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

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

I don't think so. I think when he took control of Xbox his priority was to update the hardware. He says as much in his interviews.
Now that's out of the way the focus turns to first party software.
 
I don't think so. I think when he took control of Xbox his priority was to update the hardware. He says as much in his interviews.
Now that's out of the way the focus turns to first party software.

He did say that but he also stated multiple times that they were doubling down on games and instead of getting new studios and IP several studios were closed and games canceled. Now I'm sure he didn't set out to only bring negative news to first party gaming on purpose but so far it hasn't been too promising and we actually got more new exclusives from Mattrick. But let's wait and see.
 
Securing that new playground IP as a exclusive is probably the best thing ms could do. I hope it turns out great, I feel they are the only devs that can compete with sonys first party studios in what they can do with the console (graphics). Im still stunned by fh3 looking that good on the xo.
 
If that new game (Horizon ZD like) turns out to be from PG it's gonna be exclusive.

But that remains to be seen.

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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I noticed something in the Xbox store today. It has a section called console launch exclusives and freaking Gears 4 is in there. Really odd.

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.

Now that's quote interesting. Hopefully it's true because MS sure needs it, they need it badly. And I as gamer really don't mind a developer taking full advantage of the hardware.
 
I noticed something in the Xbox store today. It has a section called console launch exclusives and freaking Gears 4 is in there. Really odd.

I'm telling you, Switch port with cross play.

KI to Steam was just the beginning!
 
Maybe this has been posted somewhere but this job listing makes it seem like Playground is not working on a Horizon-like game.

http://www.playground-games.com/careers/ocis5fwL/

Playground Games are looking for a Lead Rendering Engineer to join our brand new open world action/shooter development team. You will join the team and project at an early stage, giving you the rare opportunity to shape the technology used to build a large-scale AAA title.
 
Maybe this has been posted somewhere but this job listing makes it seem like Playground is not working on a Horizon-like game.

http://www.playground-games.com/careers/ocis5fwL/

Playground Games are looking for a Lead Rendering Engineer to join our brand new open world action/shooter development team. You will join the team and project at an early stage, giving you the rare opportunity to shape the technology used to build a large-scale AAA title.

When they say horizon zero dawn they are giving a recent example for a reason, it's to garner interest not to be accurate. The Job posting was for a lead environment artist in relation to Horizon, so that could be to do with graphical standard, open world or the type of environment. So actually a open world action shooter would be inline with that job posting.
 
Maybe this has been posted somewhere but this job listing makes it seem like Playground is not working on a Horizon-like game.

http://www.playground-games.com/careers/ocis5fwL/

Playground Games are looking for a Lead Rendering Engineer to join our brand new open world action/shooter development team. You will join the team and project at an early stage, giving you the rare opportunity to shape the technology used to build a large-scale AAA title.

It's Perfect Dark. It was there all along.
 
Are we going to see Studio Gobo game at Gamescom?



http://www.studiogobo.com/job/graduate-programmer/

I wondered why Gobo were working on a playable build before E3 then we didn't see anything, it's getting more and more likely that Xbox is going to have a Gamescom conference this year because Joe Neate one of the leads on Sea of Thieves said that they would be showing off the progression system at Gamescom. Crackdown has been making out that Gamescom would be the place to hear more about the game and even Forza has been hinting at Gamescom. I hope they have a Gamescom 2015 style conference were they talk about things further out and have more of a road map. Gamescom 2015 did have Halo wars 2 revealed so Gobos game would be a nice surprise.

A Gamescom conference like this wouldn't be to bad:
-Crackdown multiplayer reveal and beta
-Forza 7 new track unveils ("30+ environments") show maple valley redone, doc on redone FFB etc
-Super Lucky's Tale show of a new level/environment
-Sea of Thieves progression system unveil
-State of Decay 2 (unlikely?)
-ID@XBOX
-Maybe more inline with E3 2017 style of lots of games big and small as "Console launch exclusives", show of some of the E3 "CLE" some more (Cuphead, Ashen etc)
-Studio Gobo game unveil
-Third party games updates (AC, Shadow of war etc)

Highly unlikely but would be nice surprise:
-More Ori info
-Halo 6 Beta (I know Halo being at Gamescom has been shut down already)
-Maybe another global publishing project
-Third party unveils (I don't what this could be maybe Tomb Raider, something Capcom?)
 
Even if unlikely, I would love to see the following.

- MS buys Ninja Gaiden from Tecmo and hand it to Itagaki.
- Get Coalition to make Perfect Dark reboot (third person stealth action game)
- Rare to make another Conker
- CD project Red or another decent dev to take Fable
 
Even if unlikely, I would love to see the following.

- MS buys Ninja Gaiden from Tecmo and hand it to Itagaki.
- Get Coalition to make Perfect Dark reboot (third person stealth action game)
- Rare to make another Conker
- CD project Red or another decent dev to take Fable

Why? Why does everybody seem to think PD needs to be third person?
 
IDK doesn't seem like there's much to indicate MS is publishing the Playground new IP. If they were though it would be a big get for them considering how talented they are and key they've been to them in terms of their first party portfolio.
 
Even if unlikely, I would love to see the following.

- CD project Red or another decent dev to take Fable

Fable has to be British made.

Also I am going stir crazy waiting for Fable Anniversary to come to BC. I can play it anytime I want on my 360 but the frame rate is terrible, should be a lot better on XB1.
 
I wondered why Gobo were working on a playable build before E3 then we didn't see anything, it's getting more and more likely that Xbox is going to have a Gamescom conference this year because Joe Neate one of the leads on Sea of Thieves said that they would be showing off the progression system at Gamescom. Crackdown has been making out that Gamescom would be the place to hear more about the game and even Forza has been hinting at Gamescom. I hope they have a Gamescom 2015 style conference were they talk about things further out and have more of a road map. Gamescom 2015 did have Halo wars 2 revealed so Gobos game would be a nice surprise.
I went back and looked at it, and Gobo didn't actually say they would be at E3. They said,"
Were working on a playable build for everybody to play"

It's just that the tweet was before E3. But everybody could just mean the people on the studio

I'm more interested in what happened with those Square Wnox amazon Italy listings. There were 3 games. 1 is likely the life is strange collection, but what about the other 2
 
Even if unlikely, I would love to see the following.

- MS buys Ninja Gaiden from Tecmo and hand it to Itagaki.
- Get Coalition to make Perfect Dark reboot (third person stealth action game)
- Rare to make another Conker
- CD project Red or another decent dev to take Fable
coalition should just go back to their new ip.

studio gobo is most likely working on fable, they're using the unreal engine as well
 
Maybe this has been posted somewhere but this job listing makes it seem like Playground is not working on a Horizon-like game.

http://www.playground-games.com/careers/ocis5fwL/

Playground Games are looking for a Lead Rendering Engineer to join our brand new open world action/shooter development team. You will join the team and project at an early stage, giving you the rare opportunity to shape the technology used to build a large-scale AAA title.

that listing was for an enviromental artist, its not about the game beeing a Horizon-like, its about the art-style the recruiter is looking for
 
I wonder what the story is with no Halo 3 Anniversary.. seems like it would have been a perfect addition to Xbox's fall lineup and the Xbox One X launch.

Are they just saving it?
 
I wonder what the story is with no Halo 3 Anniversary.. seems like it would have been a perfect addition to Xbox's fall lineup and the Xbox One X launch.

Are they just saving it?

It doesn't need to happen
if they give MCC a 4K boost.
 
that listing was for art, it has nothing to do with the game beeing a Horizon-like, its about the art tone

Yep and this falls in line with Multiplayer.it source that said they were looking to hit a high graphical bar so it would make sense to make reference to Horizon in that regard, also inline with XOX.
 
If it is an Xbox exclusive, I wonder if they'll use some elements of Forzatech? Would be interesting to see it used outside of racing.

That's said, if it is true then signs point to the exclusivity deal being a later event meaning development would have already started without necessarily knowing which platforms it would be on.
 
coalition should just go back to their new ip.

studio gobo is most likely working on fable, they're using the unreal engine as well
Unreal doesn't mean much, they are using unreal for most of their games these days that aren't already on a propritory engine (halo and Forza).
I wonder what the story is with no Halo 3 Anniversary.. seems like it would have been a perfect addition to Xbox's fall lineup and the Xbox One X launch.

Are they just saving it?
With everything in MCC, the value of another halo remaster is diminished significantly.
 
If it is an Xbox exclusive, I wonder if they'll use some elements of Forzatech? Would be interesting to see it used outside of racing.

That's said, if it is true then signs point to the exclusivity deal being a later event meaning development would have already started without necessarily knowing which platforms it would be on.

I think if they wanted to use Forza tech it might end up being a lot more work retrofitting the engine to allow for a action/shooter. It would probably be a lot easier to just use a heavily custom UE4 to hit the graphical benchmark they want to hit. But if they do end up taking a offline version of Forza tech and customising it I hope they have a relationship between the second studio and Rare similar to that between playground (Team 1) and Turn 10 because that relationship shows in the fact that they are MS's most technically advanced studios.
 
I wonder what the story is with no Halo 3 Anniversary.. seems like it would have been a perfect addition to Xbox's fall lineup and the Xbox One X launch.

Are they just saving it?

Even pre MCC release, Frankie and co were saying that the 1080p and 60fps update was enough for Halo 3. It still holds up well today (apart from the humam faces in game lmao) so a full remaster isn't on the table yet.
 
Just watched that gameplay video of Uncharted Lost Legacy and man, these guys keep knocking it out of the park with the graphics. It's clearly topping U4 already. And sorry to bring it up but a game like Crackdown 3 after so many years of development should have looked a great deal better than it does now. I'm still disappointed about that. Doesn't mean it can't be a great game though.

But Xbox really needs that one game (rather have multiple) that has amazing graphics, just blows you away, that really shows the power of the hardware and is not a racing game for a change. Perhaps that new game, even if it seems to be a long ways away.
 
With everything in MCC, the value of another halo remaster is diminished significantly.
I still think they could justify it to be honest, I mean, it's Halo 3. Maybe include ODST as well if you're being generous.

Even pre MCC release, Frankie and co were saying that the 1080p and 60fps update was enough for Halo 3.
I'm not convinced about that.. Xbox 360 games from 10 years ago are showing their age, Gears benefited from the remake and I think this would too, especially now with Xbox One X.
 
Yep and this falls in line with Multiplayer.it source that said they were looking to hit a high graphical bar so it would make sense to make reference to Horizon in that regard, also inline with XOX.

yeah, and as you said, its the recruiter's words. They will use buzz words like this to attract and roughly exemplify what they are looking for
 
I wonder what the story is with no Halo 3 Anniversary.. seems like it would have been a perfect addition to Xbox's fall lineup and the Xbox One X launch.

Are they just saving it?
I think you vastly overestimate how well it would sell. Especially when you can buy MCC for almost nothing. If you wanted to play Halo 3. Why would somebody stop playing MCC and buy a new game
 
Hmmm, they say very high profile. Nice.

Defo sounds like Gamescom. But MS never do big announces there..?

They had one announcement at the end of 2015 with Halo Wars 2, so this would be a nice end of conference unveil. Gamescom is also closer to the second half of 2018 if they wanted a shorter unveil to release window.
 
If they had anything big to announce, I'd assume it would've been at E3.

I guess if they did something at Gamescom they could announce whatever the Age of Empires thing they teased is + Gobo's game. Not really enough for a press conference.
 
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