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Microsoft laying off 76, cuts production of own Xbox games
- Thread starter thorns
- Start date
Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
Well, looks like EA has effectively killed off XSN Sports. Way to go EA?
Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
AniHawk said:
Yeah, and so does Sega Sports. ^_^
Inside Drive, Fever, and that baseball game are hardly worth lamenting about...the only game not mentioned that I'm woried for is TopSpin. Hopefully it just wasn't deemed big enough to get mentioned alongside Links and Amped. Nice to hear that Amped and Links are still around.
What does this mean for High Heat though? Why buy the rights to a series if you never plan to use it...unless it's to keep it out of another publishers hands which still makes no sense as they killed off their own sports games shortly after the purchase.
What does this mean for High Heat though? Why buy the rights to a series if you never plan to use it...unless it's to keep it out of another publishers hands which still makes no sense as they killed off their own sports games shortly after the purchase.
Well, I thought that one football game from Microsoft looked good...although I never played it, and I heard it was a borefest.
I wonder if this is related to that rumor that EA will be backing the next-generation Xbox as its "primary" system, as it did with PS one and PlayStation 2. Wasn't that in EGM or something?
I wonder if this is related to that rumor that EA will be backing the next-generation Xbox as its "primary" system, as it did with PS one and PlayStation 2. Wasn't that in EGM or something?
Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
DMczaf said:
The memo said to place all your bets with Take-Two. ^_^
pilonv1 said:
Well that's good to know.
So we have the chance that EA will fill the role that MGS's own sports division would've filled next gen...how is this bad? I'd take Madden over Fever any day...though I'd still go with Visual Concepts for my Baseball and Basketball needs.
Dropping the bad and keeping the good while cozying up with EA and all it's licenses seems like a smart move to me.
Kumiko Nikaido
Vindication...sweet.
DMczaf said:
Yup!
Oh lookie...
RevenantKioku
PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS PEINS oh god i am drowning in them
Nintendo is doomed!
sonycowboy
Member
The real question is:
What happens to High Heat?
What happens to High Heat?
for Inside Drive and Fever. ID was the best in the biz. Fever brought some great things to football gaming that both ESPN and Madden are now copying (user specific hot routes, hot routing running plays, hot routing individual players on D, etc.)Be interesting to see where MS takes its sports game from here.
BlackClouds
Member
High Heat is dead....woohoo! Anyways...less competition is not a good thing. On good side, maybe some of Inside Drive's programmers can find their way to VC.
Dagless M.D.
Member
Its all over folks, Sell your gamecubes
open_mouth_
insert_foot_
MS is going to keep Links, Amped and Top Spin as their main published sports titles. They're gonna let VC and EA provide the goods in all the other departments (and Konami for soccer).
MS is better served, at this point in their console run, to focus on creating quality non-sports games in genres that they're either weak in or in genres that sell consoles (e.g. Killer Apps.) Releasing 5 potential AAA titles a year as opposed to 15 average to very good titles is the best strategy to take, imo, especially since their 3rd party support rivals Sony's outside of Japan. It sounds alot like Nintendo's strategy, but with games for a mature audience.
MS is better served, at this point in their console run, to focus on creating quality non-sports games in genres that they're either weak in or in genres that sell consoles (e.g. Killer Apps.) Releasing 5 potential AAA titles a year as opposed to 15 average to very good titles is the best strategy to take, imo, especially since their 3rd party support rivals Sony's outside of Japan. It sounds alot like Nintendo's strategy, but with games for a mature audience.
Oh good, I'm not the only one.MoxManiac said:
It's got to be the glasses. Those are not "cool" glasses.
As for MS, on one hand, cutting back on games that do so much better with third parties isn't a bad strategy, on the other hand a good first-party software collection couldn't hurt either - and it takes time to develop quality.
Buffy4ever
Banned
I don't think cutting the Sport lineup is a good idea. If Microsoft relies On EA and Sega for sports to help launch thier next console, it could hurt Microsoft. One of the problems eith the Sega saturn was this situation. Sega had not prepared enough or all the sports game for launch, instead they were going to rely on EA. As we know EA scraped thier Maddens that year, and sega didnt have a football game, while sony did have thier own sports games ready to launch. This was one of the factors that hurt Sega and could hurt Microsoft. Now, some will say but Nintendo doesn't have a sports line up, but nintendo doens't need it. Nintendo has thier famous properties ( I am talking about more then just one game like Halo) and loyal fans to help launch a system, so Nintendo doens't need sports to appeal to the casual game player.
U.2.K. Tha Greate$t
Banned
"When we got to that point, we started looking around and started realizing, wait, we've got tons of third-party support," he said. "We shouldn't be the bulk game provider."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^Stupid statement.......
^^^^^^^^^^^^^Stupid statement.......
Guileless
Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Phoenix said:
But this makes it more likely that there will be a new Madden at launch, since Microsoft apparently feels comfortable about abandoning its owns sports lineup. I just never thought that EA would develop a next-gen Madden for release solely on a new Microsoft console, which will not have a huge install base initially.
If the Xenon comes out a year before PS3 with a new Madden, that would be a major coup. It just sold 1 million copies in its first week of release--those are hardcore fans who have to have the game as soon as its out. If there's a next gen version available, that will be very tempting to legions of PS1 & PS2 owners who have been dutifully handing over $50 to EA for their Playstation Madden since 1997.
Of course, maybe MS is just banking on ESPN as a launch football title. VC has certainly used the built-in advantages of the XBox to greater effect than EA. In fact, EA has shit all over Xbox owners with its piss poor port of NCAA 2005, which is borderline unplayable online.
Phoenix
Member
Guileless said:
How is this any different from EA developing sports titles for any other platform at launch? EA rolls out games every season. One would assume that if there were a new platform out that season, they would create games for it for that sporting season. Seems more like common sense business to me.
U.2.K. Tha Greate$t
Banned
Don't be a troll for no reason....
Hmmm I don't think so. If EA is doing Madden for the Xbox 2 launch it means they will have to make a quite different looking game from what they will sell at the same time on PS2 and NGC. Producing new characters models / textures and making a new engine to go with them costs a lot of money. And even with all that EA just can't be totally sure a Madden launch title would sell more than your yearly Xbox 1 upgrade.Phoenix said: