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Phil Harrison: Microsoft making $1B bet on Xbox One games

Pyrokai said:
Question: What's to stop me from giving out my password to friends to have access to play all my games?
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Nothing. The question is if you trust your friends enough. I mean I borrow my games all the time to bunch of dudes but few and far between are those who I would give my PSN login info for instance (well I do share it with one and so basically he has access to everything I own digitally).
 
Pyrokai said:
Question: What's to stop me from giving out my password to friends to have access to play all my games?
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If he is logged in, you can't play them I imagine.Obviously you could log in under your account

you do that now with the 360 for xbl and games on demand?
 
I know there's a lot of negativity around the box itself but I think we're all going to be pleasantly surprised by the software at E3. So long as its not all pure Kinect stuff, that is. The added functionality he's described it was I've wanted all along. Like controller + head tracking, or voice commands to unleash special attacks. I'm cautiously optimistic.
 
There are over 30 game development studios all over the world now.

Microsoft Studios around the world:

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They even set a new Osaka studio for Japan.
 
Drek said:
They bought Rare who hasn't made anything worthwhile since.
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Viva Piñata is more than enough.

Their one in house success has been Turn10 who were founded in 2001 and didn't release their first game until 2005. Somehow we're supposed to believe that all of these new studios will ramp up faster than them with more initial employees and most likely without a direct competitor to use as a template.

If this commitment existed 5 years ago we might actually know the pedigree of these studios. You know, like Sony did. Instead Ms is trying to buy their way out of first party negligence. They haven't gotten that to work for them yet.
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Yes let's ignore 343i and Lionhead.

Anyway, it's all smoke and mirrors to try and somehow negate the bottom line: Microsoft are investing $1 billion singularly into games.

The implications of this could mean we get a load of great games or a load of trash, either which way it shows a commitment to games and the gamer that goes beyond empty lip service.
 
Hix said:
Viva Piñata is more than enough.



Yes let's ignore 343i and Lionhead.

Anyway, it's all smoke and mirrors to try and somehow negate the bottom line: Microsoft are investing $1 billion singularly into games.

The implications of this could mean we get a load of great games or a load of trash, either which way it shows a commitment to games and the gamer that goes beyond empty lip service.
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Kinda like sony this gen.
They produce like 2~3 meh exclusive and 1~2 yeah exclusive a year for the last few years.
 
How much is MS spending in total on the console? R&D NFL Servers games etc.

This thing is never going to break even
 
Hix said:
Viva Piñata is more than enough.
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Seriously? Given what Rare did on Nintendo consoles you think Viva Pinata is enough? How about the massive talent exodus Rare has seen since the purchase?

Yes let's ignore 343i
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Who were literally handed the Halo IP on a silver platter and a $100M budget. Released the worst Halo game to date. Why should I care about them?

And want proof that it's the worst Halo to date? Worst Metacritic score and while it's predecessors sold at or near full MSRP for years after release you could get Halo 4 at $40 or below less than a year after release. It's now down to $28 on Amazon. I don't think Halo:CE ever got that cheap on the OG Xbox.

and Lionhead.
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A middling over promise/under deliver studio who has made progressively worse games the longer they've been with Microsoft, and who have seen major creative exodus. Yep, that's a success story if I ever saw one.

Anyway, it's all smoke and mirrors to try and somehow negate the bottom line: Microsoft are investing $1 billion singularly into games.
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Square Enix invested a ton of money in Final Fantasy XIII, that didn't make it any less shit. THQ bet the farm on uDraw and Homefront. What did that get them? This is a talent driven industry, as much as the executives at MS, EA, etc. try to convince people otherwise. Money can't make up for a lack of talent, or simply bad chemistry within a studio. We have no idea who the people making games for MS even are, let alone if these new found studios have the chemistry to make something worthwhile.

The implications of this could mean we get a load of great games or a load of trash, either which way it shows a commitment to games and the gamer that goes beyond empty lip service.
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A commitment to games and the gamer would have been funding legitimate first party development throughout the life of your previous console. Not shutting down every studio that doesn't have a multi-million franchise to milk and not replacing them with anything new.

Microsoft sat on their hands with Crackdown and killed a potentially strong new franchise. They let Bizarre walk away and collapse instead of keeping PGR alive. They shut down FASA and have since let Weisman take all his IPs with him. How is any of that a commitment to games and gamers?

This is nothing more than PR with a big number attached to make it look impressive.
 
Isn't it funny that most of the best titles of the last couple of years were made by indies or small developers for a rather small amounts of money?
If MS think that they can buy themselves out of no games situation they should prepare to be heavily dissapointed.
 
Really curious about that Osaka studio. I hope they'll reveal some more info about their plans for Japan soon.

I agree with the notion that it's ridiculous to assume that a project gets better just because you invest more capital in it. That is faulty logic on the most basic level. Fostering a good common ideology and goals for the developers to strive for is much more important.
However, one billion dollars is a large sum of money no matter how you look at it, and one can presume that it is a statement from Microsoft that they are actually seriously about going out of their way to expand the market through the creation of new games as internal projects as well, instead of just investing in third party creations. I can't see how this is a bad thing, if one were to look at this fact alone, without letting all the recent revelations of Microsofts new system getting into the picture.
 
Chuck Norris said:
Looks like they've made plenty of progress

"Game related content" that could include everything from software to the hardware itself
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Agreed. I like Kinect as a tech but its not perfect. I am kinda glad MS stuck with it and improved it. While not great for everything, I think it will be perfect for fitness games. All the extra tracking and heart-rate stuff could give MS a good shot with their own Wii Fit massive seller.

dr_rus said:
Isn't it funny that most of the best titles of the last couple of years were made by indies or small developers for a rather small amounts of money?
If MS think that they can buy themselves out of no games situation they should prepare to be heavily dissapointed.
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What do you class as "best" ?

New consoles need AAA games to launch, else there is no userbase for all those indie games to appear.
 
I guess at this point MSFT just wants to throw numbers around to impress. First, 40x power thanks to the cloud then 1 billion on games.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that it isn't impressive but who really cares. Show me games.

Sony could easily have said the same or that they are spending hundreds of millions on games because you know their studios games cost quite a bit as well so this billion dollar figure isn't really something that instills confidence.

One thing of note is that they've expanded a little so that's something.

mrklaw said:
how much is sony expected to invest? Is that 1bn in the first year or so of launch, or across the lifetime?
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With their worldwide studios, probably around the same. That's why I kind of balk at Phil mentioning this as if we should be impressed. Spending money to make games doesn't make them great. The proof is in the pudding.
 
It's good to hear they are investing in game development.

I hope the majority they make are core gamer focused and out of all of IEB's strategies this works out well for them (if it does really well it shows to management in MS and their shareholders that investing in core games is good and a great money earning venture).
 
fluffydelusions said:
And when one of those titles doesn't sell like Halo or GeoW (e.g. Alan Wake, 1vs100) they will kick it to the curb.
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They may not have greenlit a sequel at this point, but would we really say Alan Wake was kicked to the curb? MS greenlit the XBLA game, and clearly valued Remedy enough to give them funding for a whole new IP.
 
NotUS said:
The more I read the more I think this thing is stupid.

I'm playing a game, my brother walks in, Kinect recognizes him in the room, he says 'Xbox Home', it logs me out of the game?

Man, this is gonna piss off a lot of people.
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I don't understand this hypothetical scenario at all. If your brother is that big of an asshole that he would log you out of a game while you're playing it, then he would've done that regardless of whether the Kinect was there or not.
 
dragonelite said:
Kinda like sony this gen.
They produce like 2~3 meh exclusive and 1~2 yeah exclusive a year for the last few years.
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Yeah, don't like Sony's first party offerings much either.

PJV3 said:
How much is MS spending in total on the console? R&D NFL Servers games etc.

This thing is never going to break even
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Even if they don't get the crazy numbers VP Mehdi pulled out of his ass, they should cash in big on Live subscriptions and services in the long run.

Chuck Norris said:
Looks like they've made plenty of progress

"Game related content" that could include everything from software to the hardware itself
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It specifically mentions game development.

Drek said:
Seriously? Given what Rare did on Nintendo consoles you think Viva Pinata is enough? How about the massive talent exodus Rare has seen since the purchase?
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You said they hadn't made anything worthwhile. I disagree.

Who were literally handed the Halo IP on a silver platter and a $100M budget. Released the worst Halo game to date. Why should I care about them?
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Subjective fluff. Halo 4 was a good game and they contributed to CEA which was great.

Studio has a lot of talent and your vitriolic rants are hilariously off base.

A commitment to games and the gamer would have been funding legitimate first party development throughout the life of your previous console. Not shutting down every studio that doesn't have a multi-million franchise to milk and not replacing them with anything new.
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They are talking about the present and future, you are moaning about the past.

This is nothing more than PR with a big number attached to make it look impressive.
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Is it PR? Yes.
Does it have a big number attached? Yes.
Are Microsoft investing $1 billion in game development, opening new studios and making 15 first party games? Yes.

What's your problem again?
 
So with all this awesome voice recognition stuff they have going on I assume players in online games will be getting automatic kicks/bans for being racist/abusive while playing online. Makes sense right?
 
APZonerunner said:
They may not have greenlit a sequel at this point, but would we really say Alan Wake was kicked to the curb? MS greenlit the XBLA game, and clearly valued Remedy enough to give them funding for a whole new IP.
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Remedy is a great developer so it's no wonder they kept them around but in the interview with Sam posted the other day he said the game didn't make enough for MS to green light a sequel. BTW, he did say in the end it has sold over 3m copies so far. Not sure if that is both games combined or what though.
 
If this console fails, it seems the failure will be huge. But if it gas the games, even with all the other shit, it probably won't be too bad.
 
Hix said:
Y
Is it PR? Yes.
Does it have a big number attached? Yes.
Are Microsoft investing $1 billion in game development, opening new studios and making 15 first party games? Yes.

What's your problem again?
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My problem is less talk about numbers like 1 billion, 300,000 servers, or 40x better thanks to the cloud.

You don't see an issue with tossing these almost hyperbolic terms out there?

They could have shown games, answered more questions to clarify their position on used games and online but instead we get marketing drivel.

Like, "look how much we can spend and check out these other big numbers!". You know what would be impressive right now, seeing actual games on Xbone.

So let's come back to the point, I don't hate what they're saying entirely but I do hate how they've handled just about everything about the platform in regards to games.

Microsoft can spend money, this is well documented.

I hope the games are good enough or at least not all Kinect focused.
 
Drek said:
Who were literally handed the Halo IP on a silver platter and a $100M budget. Released the worst Halo game to date. Why should I care about them?
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I can't believe the leaps and bounds you take in your arguments.
And want proof that it's the worst Halo to date? Worst Metacritic score and while it's predecessors sold at or near full MSRP for years after release you could get Halo 4 at $40 or below less than a year after release. It's now down to $28 on Amazon. I don't think Halo:CE ever got that cheap on the OG Xbox.
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Sales and metacritic says a game is bad, that doesn’t make any sense at all. FYI in sales it was hugely succesful, 220 million day one worldwide and fastest selling Halo title.
A commitment to games and the gamer would have been funding legitimate first party development throughout the life of your previous console. Not shutting down every studio that doesn't have a multi-million franchise to milk and not replacing them with anything new.
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Yet, committing now is bad thing? C’mon now.
Microsoft sat on their hands with Crackdown and killed a potentially strong new franchise. They let Bizarre walk away and collapse instead of keeping PGR alive. They shut down FASA and have since let Weisman take all his IPs with him. How is any of that a commitment to games and gamers?
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Oh you mean Activision shut Bizarre? Yeah, that sure was Microsoft’s fault.

You know that Microsft licensed out the IP to Weisman right? And he has been stuck on them for like 3 year. Microsoft even let other companies make games out of those licences, example F2P Mechwarrior.

You use a lot of strawman that on the surface look like a whole lot if you lump them together. However they fall apart when you look at each individual aspects, the arguments are broken. You also complain about them having to do better, yet at the same time you are arguing that they should not bother. What is it? Seems like you just want to yell.
 
Hey, Harrison. Come sit by me for a moment.

Now you're saying some nice things, but then we hear from the lovely guys over at Remedy that they couldn't get funding for Alan Wake 2. So I have to ask you, son...WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF $1B INVESTMENT IN GAMES IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FUND ANOTHER FUCKING ALAN WAKE.

EH? EH?
 
Considering that I don't find one single... (o wait Gears maybe) ... Ms exclusive interesting. I am not hyped personally. I am sure there will be some huge games, but until they show them to us (gameplay) I am very reserved.

While on the other side I can't wait to see what SWWS have, since I tend to enjoy sony exclusives (not all but all the big ones - GT since I don't care about racing game anymore)
 
Miles Quaritch said:
Hey, Harrison. Come sit by me for a moment.

Now you're saying some nice things, but then we hear from the lovely guys over at Remedy that they couldn't get funding for Alan Wake 2. So I have to ask you, son...WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF $1B INVESTMENT IN GAMES IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FUND ANOTHER FUCKING ALAN WAKE.

EH? EH?
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I want AW2 as well. They should and could spend some of that rumored 400m on that NFL deal and divert more funds to Remedy for another Alan Wake but at least Remedy is making a new IP so you can't really complain too much.
 
Drek said:
Who were literally handed the Halo IP on a silver platter and a $100M budget. Released the worst Halo game to date. Why should I care about them?
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This... this isnt true at all, im a long time Halo player - its by far the best campaign since CE. Id rather 343i move Halo forward than Bungie who i believe were lacking with each Halo.
 
I hope they haven't invested ALL of this on internal studios...
Much better to target proven talent (like they did with Epic) and money-hat exclusives.

As someone else pointed out, money doesn't always buy talent and investing heavily in new studios can massively backfire if they then don't deliver. You minimize this risk somewhat if you target established and proven talent.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
Hey, Harrison. Come sit by me for a moment.

Now you're saying some nice things, but then we hear from the lovely guys over at Remedy that they couldn't get funding for Alan Wake 2. So I have to ask you, son...WHAT THE FUCK IS THE POINT OF $1B INVESTMENT IN GAMES IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO FUND ANOTHER FUCKING ALAN WAKE.

EH? EH?
Click to expand...

Buy the new game and Remedy pretty much get a free pass to make AW2. I love me some AW but I always want o see them do something else and then pour all of that awesome gameplay ideas and tech usage into a truly amazing AW2 game.
 
LiquidMetal14 said:
I want AW2 as well. They should and could spend some of that rumored 400m on that NFL deal and divert more funds to Remedy for another Alan Wake but at least Remedy is making a new IP so you can't really complain too much.
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A new Remedy IP is always welcome, but I need closure in AW. I don't even care if it's another small release like American Nightmare, just give me some damn closure. The IP has so much potential, it literally pains me to see it being sidelined the way it is.

Raide said:
Buy the new game and Remedy pretty much get a free pass to make AW2. I love me some AW but I always want o see them do something else and then pour all of that awesome gameplay ideas and tech usage into a truly amazing AW2 game.
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I hope so, I really do. Although it's much more likely we'll get a sequel to QB if it's a roaring success.
 
NotUS said:
The more I read the more I think this thing is stupid.

I'm playing a game, my brother walks in, Kinect recognizes him in the room, he says 'Xbox Home', it logs me out of the game?

Man, this is gonna piss off a lot of people.
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I swear these juniors are bots or something.

....

Voice recognition.....hold the XBox button to do so.....or.....both. = profit.
 
15 games, my guess:

8 Kinect games, 5-7 of which are the "Original" titles they talked about; 1 Sports, 1 adventures like title (Collection of mini games.), 1 or more based on an IP like Star Wars to show off functionality (Rare title.), 1 kids game, 1 music game. Mirrors Edge 2 is full-on Kinect. Crackdown Super-HD Kinect remake. an "Anno" title with full-on Kinect. 3 of these kinect titles are made by Black Tusk studios.

Gears of Warish game (Black Tusk game.), Ryse, the creators of CoD's game, QB, a Destiny single player prequel to tie into the MMO or a Halo spinoff/prequel, Forza 5, and a game set in the Fable universe.
 
Obviously it's going to have great games. Don't tell that to the "games are what matter crowd"..lol

I think the big part is this...but I'm sure it WILL BE ignored.

"Harrison: Just like today, if you have a game disc that you buy from the store, you can play that game. The game is now installed to the hard drive. Any user who is associated with that Xbox One can play that game. I can give that game disc to my son and he can go and take it to another machine inside the house and play it on that machine. Just like today, only one of us can play it at any one time.

The difference, though — the benefit of Xbox One is that that data can roam with me. I can go to my friend’s house. I can log in as myself into his machine. I can then play that game on his machine, and while I’m logged in, he can play it as well.

GamesBeat: Do you bring your disc with you, or could you use his disc?

Harrison: Doesn’t matter, yeah. If I bring my disc with me and I leave the bits on his hard drive, but he wants to play the game, he can buy the game — just like today. But in this instance, the bits were already on his hard drive, so it’s an instant switch-out. We will have a solution — and we’re not talking about the details today but just to take the angst out of this — that allows a user to trade that game back in and to give up the right to play that game."
 
Jac_Solar said:
15 games, my guess:

8 Kinect games, 7 of which are the "Original" titles they talked about; 1 Sports, 1 adventures like title (Collection of mini games.), 1 or more based on an IP like Star Wars to show off functionality (Rare title.), 1 kids game, 1 music game. Mirrors Edge 2 is full-on Kinect. Crackdown Super-HD Kinect remake. an "Anno" title with full-on Kinect. 3 of these kinect titles are made by Black Tusk studios.

Gears of Warish game (Black Tusk game.), Ryse, the creators of CoD game, a platformer ala LittleBigPlanet but uniquely Microsoft, a Destiny single player prequel to tie into the MMO or a Halo spinoff/prequel, Forza 5, and a game set in the Fable universe.
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Jesus. This was funny at first, but now it's getting pretty ridiculous. All games will Kinect functionality, that doesn't automatically make them bad or full of motion control garbage as are praying/wishing they will be.
 
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