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Microsoft Studios (& Partners) Current and Future Landscape

I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet but I saw it on the front page of r/xboxone and I thought it was interesting. During Xbox's E3 2013 press conference Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft was "investing in five brand new studios to create blockbuster franchises for Xbox".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXicnwHgss&feature=youtu.be&t=1h15m34s

What on earth happened to these studios? We know what happened to Black Tusk (http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/28/5354334/the-mystery-of-black-tusks-next-big-entertainment-franchise) but did the other four just didn't get off the ground?

I know they closed a bunch of studios last year, were any of these the ones Phil was alluding about? http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-may-have-closed-five-more-internal-game-studios

It's really interesting going back and watching Xbox's 2013 and 2014 E3 conferences.
 
Wedzi said:
I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet but I saw it on the front page of r/xboxone and I thought it was interesting. During Xbox's E3 2013 press conference Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft was "investing in five brand new studios to create blockbuster franchises for Xbox".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXicnwHgss&feature=youtu.be&t=1h15m34s

What on earth happened to these studios? We know what happened to Black Tusk (http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/28/5354334/the-mystery-of-black-tusks-next-big-entertainment-franchise) but did the other four just didn't get off the ground?

I know they closed a bunch of studios last year, were any of these the ones Phil was alluding about? http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-may-have-closed-five-more-internal-game-studios

It's really interesting going back and watching Xbox's 2013 and 2014 E3 conferences.
Click to expand...


Half those studios are working on mobile and Hololens content.
 
Man, I know the E3 2013 conference gets a bad reputation because of the general feelings of the Xbox One at the time, but First Party wise, I still think it's one of the best. Love that KI reveal.

I think it's also one of the reasons why most of us were so excited when Phil Spencer took over as head of Xbox. The first party line up was the highlight of all the stuff surrounding the console at the time.
 
If you guys think MS software output is so un-competitive because of some unavoidable misfortunate events, u should try harder to remember so many stories about 3rd party developer relationships turn sour after working with MS and MS gimping/ closing down it's own 1st party studio.

Also try to remember xbox is losing it's gaming audiences. Halo and gears sales are much smaller on xb1 than during 360 era while ForzaH maintains a similar level.

XB urgently needs something
 
KampferZeon said:
If you guys think MS software output is so un-competitive because of some unavoidable misfortunate events, u should try harder to remember so many stories about 3rd party developer relationships turn sour after working with MS and MS gimping/ closing down it's own 1st party studio.

Also try to remember xbox is losing it's gaming audiences. Halo and gears sales are much smaller on xb1 than during 360 era while ForzaH maintains a similar level.

XB urgently needs something
Click to expand...

Audience retention is high, and according to EA (I think) they see a larger percentage of the playerbase buying/playing their games on Xbox One.

Yes, Xbox its in seconds place, but it's not loosing players, its actually keeping roughly the same pace as the previous gen (about 25ish mill) though concrete numbers are hard to come across door Xbox.

Not saying Xbox fans shouldn't worry, or that Microsoft is without blame, but it's not all doom and gloom as you seem to make it.

Someone needs to come second in order for someone to come first, but it doesn't mean they lost.

TheUnsunghero26 said:
Man, I know the E3 2013 conference gets a bad reputation because of the general feelings of the Xbox One at the time, but First Party wise, I still think it's one of the best.
Click to expand...

A lot of people still seem to confuse the Xbox One reveal and E3, though you're right about the general feel of the console at the time didn't help (and some people still hold onto that hate).
 
Wedzi said:
I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet but I saw it on the front page of r/xboxone and I thought it was interesting. During Xbox's E3 2013 press conference Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft was "investing in five brand new studios to create blockbuster franchises for Xbox".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXicnwHgss&feature=youtu.be&t=1h15m34s

What on earth happened to these studios? We know what happened to Black Tusk (http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/28/5354334/the-mystery-of-black-tusks-next-big-entertainment-franchise) but did the other four just didn't get off the ground?

I know they closed a bunch of studios last year, were any of these the ones Phil was alluding about? http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-may-have-closed-five-more-internal-game-studios

It's really interesting going back and watching Xbox's 2013 and 2014 E3 conferences.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure they had a bunch of Hololens teams than got consolidated, either not directly working under Xbox/phil anymore or were just plain closed.

When I used to follow this stuff more closely I noticed quite a few of the people left but admittedly I haven't checked in a while.
 
KampferZeon said:
If you guys think MS software output is so un-competitive because of some unavoidable misfortunate events, u should try harder to remember so many stories about 3rd party developer relationships turn sour after working with MS and MS gimping/ closing down it's own 1st party studio.

Also try to remember xbox is losing it's gaming audiences. Halo and gears sales are much smaller on xb1 than during 360 era while ForzaH maintains a similar level.

XB urgently needs something
Click to expand...

Oh no don't get me wrong MS definetly shoulders the blame for their lack of 1st production, but more importantly the quality of it. I can't remember the last time Xbox has a bonefide GOTY contender from first party.
 
Wedzi said:
Oh no don't get me wrong MS definetly shoulders the blame for their lack of 1st production, but more importantly the quality of it. I can't remember the last time Xbox has a bonefide GOTY contender from first party.
Click to expand...

That's largely because, outside of Overwatch, barely anyone considers multiplayer-focused games GOTY contenders. :P

A sad reality, that.
 
Wedzi said:
Oh no don't get me wrong MS definetly shoulders the blame for their lack of 1st production, but more importantly the quality of it. I can't remember the last time Xbox has a bonefide GOTY contender from first party.
Click to expand...
.....What was the last Xbox exclusive to get GotY or be a big contender?
 
Wedzi said:
I don't know if this has been brought up in this thread yet but I saw it on the front page of r/xboxone and I thought it was interesting. During Xbox's E3 2013 press conference Phil Spencer announced that Microsoft was "investing in five brand new studios to create blockbuster franchises for Xbox".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXicnwHgss&feature=youtu.be&t=1h15m34s

What on earth happened to these studios? We know what happened to Black Tusk (http://www.polygon.com/2014/1/28/5354334/the-mystery-of-black-tusks-next-big-entertainment-franchise) but did the other four just didn't get off the ground?

I know they closed a bunch of studios last year, were any of these the ones Phil was alluding about? http://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-may-have-closed-five-more-internal-game-studios

It's really interesting going back and watching Xbox's 2013 and 2014 E3 conferences.
Click to expand...
That has always been an interesting subject to look back on.

If Phil was talking about game studios without a major Kinect focus I can only think of these:

Black Tusk (Now Coalition)
LXP
Decisive Games
Microsoft Victoria
Team Dakota

Team Dakota might be stretching but I'm hard pressed to find any other studios that could have fit that criteria. Either way it's really sad to have seen most of those either never form or become defunct.

MS has really struggled with creating new studios the entire gen. Unless they have a clear agenda for a new studio they might be better off just acquiring studios that are okay with being brought into MS studios rather than trying so many home grown attempts.
 
sam777 said:
I wonder how well Phil's mission in Japan is going.
Click to expand...

Deliver Scorpio dev kit in person, show 3rd party how easy it is to port game over to UWP, how much money they leave on the table,
Shoot some hype interview video about Scorpio for E3 and stage time arrangements.
 
wapplew said:
Deliver Scorpio dev kit in person, show 3rd party how easy it is to port game over to UWP, how much money they leave on the table,
Shoot some hype interview video about Scorpio for E3 and stage time arrangements.
Click to expand...
That looks to be the most ideal thing to do in MS's situation.
 
Yea I do think he's going to try sell UWP on devs. Xbox might not be able to get the Japanese games on it's own but being able to develop for PC + Xbox via UWP it might stand a chance at getting some of them.
 
wapplew said:
Deliver Scorpio dev kit in person, show 3rd party how easy it is to port game over to UWP, how much money they leave on the table,
Shoot some hype interview video about Scorpio for E3 and stage time arrangements.
Click to expand...

Hopefully I mainly want Nier on Xbox as well as a couple of others, otherwise I will have to buy a Playstation. Can't wait till E3.
 
I know there's a thread for the podcast episode in question, but I wanted to focus in on Phil Spencer's recent comments about their first/second party situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8uBk0FmL5Q&t=1783s

He does seemingly confirm that we will see "new" stuff, but I'm wondering to what extent. Will it be almost strictly second party new ip's? Or can one of their A-teams pump out something brand new? I've said before that it would be nice if Microsoft's top teams could flex their muscles a bit with totally new projects. I guess it just looks like the situation is fucked with all the recent cancellations and studio closures.
 
Trago said:
I know there's a thread for the podcast episode in question, but I wanted to focus in on Phil Spencer's recent comments about their first/second party situation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8uBk0FmL5Q&t=1783s

He does seemingly confirm that we will see "new" stuff, but I'm wondering to what extent. Will it be almost strictly second party new ip's? Or can one of their A-teams pump out something brand new? I've said before that it would be nice if Microsoft's top teams could flex their muscles a bit with totally new projects. I guess it just looks like the situation is fucked with all the recent cancellations and studio closures.
Click to expand...
It's going to be really fascinating to see what Microsoft is able to pull together by the end of the year. It seems like Spencer has alluded to new projects a few times, but I haven't yet heard a compelling prediction about what those might be.
 
SamNW said:
It's going to be really fascinating to see what Microsoft is able to pull together by the end of the year. It seems like Spencer has alluded to new projects a few times, but I haven't yet heard a compelling prediction about what those might be.
Click to expand...

Well, since The Coalition finished Gears 4, I think it would be nice for them to start a new IP at least. But Gears 5 is a safe bet unfortunately. And Rare is finishing up Sea of Thieves, so them working on another new IP is unlikely I think. They might go back to one of their older IP's.

Honestly, the unexpected new stuff out of Microsoft for a long time has been their second party releases. That's why it's always exciting to know who they're partnering with.
 
Trago said:
Well, since The Coalition finished Gears 4, I think it would be nice for them to start a new IP at least. But Gears 5 is a safe bet unfortunately. And Rare is finishing up Sea of Thieves, so them working on another new IP is unlikely I think. They might go back to one of their older IP's.

Honestly, the unexpected new stuff out of Microsoft for a long time has been their second party releases. That's why it's always exciting to know who they're partnering with.
Click to expand...
I think that a sequel to Ori or some other new project from Moon is a safe bet, but beyond that, I'm having a hard time coming up with other potential second- and third-party exclusives.
 
SamNW said:
I think that a sequel to Ori or some other new project from Moon is a safe bet, but beyond that, I'm having a hard time coming up with other potential second- and third-party exclusives.
Click to expand...

They might work with Remedy again. I know Remedy's next game is multiplatform though. And then working with Sakaguchi again would be a no brainer.
 
gaming_noob said:
I can see them hand Banjo to Insomniac and Perfect Dark to Eidos Montreal. Wishful thinking.
Click to expand...
Eidos Montréal is a big studio, but it sounds like they're working on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, entering pre-production on Guardians of the Galaxy, and helping out on Crystal Dynamics' Avengers game. I doubt they'll be taking on any other projects.

Trago said:
They might work with Remedy again. I know Remedy's next game is multiplatform though. And then working with Sakaguchi again would be a no brainer.
Click to expand...
It sounds like Remedy will be going multiplatform for the foreseeable future—for their next game at the very least, as you said. Another partnership with Mistwalker would be interesting, though.
 
Are Rare big enough for multiple teams? They are probably the only ones who could have a surprise up their sleeve and do another new I.P from MS' 1st party. Unless they let Turn 10 do something new. Probably too early for Coalition and 343 I don't see doing anything not Halo.
 
Floody said:
Are Rare big enough for multiple teams? They are probably the only ones who could have a surprise up their sleeve and do another new I.P from MS' 1st party. Unless they let Turn 10 do something new. Probably too early for Coalition and 343 I don't see doing anything not Halo.
Click to expand...

Considering how SoT is a service based game, I don't think that'll be the only thing we'll see from Rare for a long time. I have a feeling that they'll go back to Banjo or Perfect Dark or something.
 
sam777 said:
Hopefully I mainly want Nier on Xbox as well as a couple of others, otherwise I will have to buy a Playstation. Can't wait till E3.
Click to expand...

Exactly that. After seeing how well also Nier is now reviewing it just saddens me to see that it's not coming to Xbox. So much for the developer at first saying they would wait and see how the PS4 version was going to do in terms of sales and then maybe bring it to Xbox too. But about two weeks ago they killed that altogether. I would love to play games like that on my Xbox One/Scorpio and also games like Nioh and JRPGs. To think that Phil went to Japan and was grateful that we got FFXV from Square Enix. Square Enix publishes Nier, let the dev make an Xbox version too then :(

Hopefully that visit to Japan brought some good stuff. Can't have been for nothing.

Trago said:
They might work with Remedy again. I know Remedy's next game is multiplatform though. And then working with Sakaguchi again would be a no brainer.
Click to expand...

Their next game is a Korean F2P shooter, right? I really wonder if there's a future for MS+Remedy. I don't get it at all that MS didn't mention QB at all in that report early this year where they looked back on last year.

As for Moon Studios. I recall the developer saying they were looking forward to E3. Could of course simply be that they look forward to seeing Scorpio and the games but i think they will debut their new game there.Should be awesome.

SamNW said:
Eidos Montréal is a big studio, but it sounds like they're working on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, entering pre-production on Guardians of the Galaxy, and helping out on Crystal Dynamics' Avengers game. I doubt they'll be taking on any other projects.


It sounds like Remedy will be going multiplatform for the foreseeable future—for their next game at the very least, as you said. Another partnership with Mistwalker would be interesting, though.
Click to expand...

Didn't Mistwalker early this year say they had a new game announcement sometime this year? It would be great if that could be a game with MS again, who knows.

Floody said:
Are Rare big enough for multiple teams? They are probably the only ones who could have a surprise up their sleeve and do another new I.P from MS' 1st party. Unless they let Turn 10 do something new. Probably too early for Coalition and 343 I don't see doing anything not Halo.
Click to expand...

Yeah i wonder how big Rare is as well. I'm sure they will be supporting SoT for a long time to come but you'd think they don't need all of Rare on that. I would go absolutely nuts if they were to announce a new Banjo with the amazing colorful graphics of Sea of Thieves, man it looks so lovely.
 
I mean there are always smaller devs that they can and have worked with in the past. I wouldn't expect any huge crazy budget games to come that we already don't know about. But those cheaper games can still be developed by smaller studios. There's always the moon studios, sumo digital, iron galaxy, ruffian type companies out there that can make you a smaller budget A or AA game
 
I really think 343 should have a second team building perfect dark. They are a huge company with 450 employees. I know all of them don't work on the actual games, but still.

Or give PD to the coalition and have them make a third person stealth game. They have 200 employees, and it would be good to rotate gears.

I'm sure rare (200 employees) are developing a small title as many others have also thought.

Playground is making a new IP next right? I wonder if we'll see that for 2018 holidays.

Capcom Vancouver has been working with MS for a while now, how likely are they to continue after dead rising 4?
 
Yeah, one of those projects has to be an Ori sequel (or something new from Moon)

And I hope if they are working with Sakaguchi, is because they are ressurecting Cry On

A man can dream
 
blakep267 said:
I mean there are always smaller devs that they can and have worked with in the past. I wouldn't expect any huge crazy budget games to come that we already don't know about. But those cheaper games can still be developed by smaller studios. There's always the moon studios, sumo digital, iron galaxy, ruffian type companies out there that can make you a smaller budget A or AA game
Click to expand...

I find myself more excited to know about what kind of second party games they publish, because most of the time they are new and interesting looking IP's. I'd like to see them expand on that to make up for the lack of new stuff on the first party front.

FelipeMGM said:
Yeah, one of those projects has to be an Ori sequel (or something new from Moon)

And I hope if they are working with Sakaguchi, is because they are ressurecting Cry On

A man can dream
Click to expand...

Again, it's a no brainer. Lack of Japanese games is a big problem on Xbox. Partnering with Sakaguhi again would help make up for this a bit.
 
Phil's going to come out on stage at E3 and announce a new studio called The Guild which will take ownership of the Fable franchise. You know it makes sense :P

Jokes aside, I'm excited to see what they have in store at E3, as beyond this year it's pretty unclear what games are being made.
 
For 2017 announcements I feel like it's going to be:

Ori 2
Forza 7
Unannounced AA Game/Indie Title.
Unannounced Port/Remaster of Original Xbox IP

2018:
Forza Horizon 4
Halo 6

Aside from these two, 2018's lineup is relatively unknown. Could we see an announcement for a 2018 game at E3 perhaps?
 
When Phil talks about first party he includes games like Quantum Break, Forza Horizon and Halo Wars. They might not own the studio but they do own the IP and I see more collaborations like that rather than something from one of there owned studios or forming a new studio.

This is the direction they have chosen to take and it has positives and negatives in equal measure.

E3 this year is going to be really interesting to see how they push the Xbox narrative. They have new hardware to launch and they need to be shown to support it but we have no fucking clue what is coming in 2018 cause they've announced or shown off nothing.
 
willbsn13 said:
For 2017 announcements I feel like it's going to be:

Ori 2
Forza 7
Unannounced AA Game/Indie Title.
Unannounced Port/Remaster of Original Xbox IP

2018:
Forza Horizon 4
Halo 6

Aside from these two, 2018's lineup is relatively unknown. We could see an announcement for a 2018 game at E3 perhaps?
Click to expand...

I mean, pretty sure Halo 6 will be announced at E3 this year. If you mean other stuff than that then IDK.
 
FelipeMGM said:
Pretty sure Halo 6 will be announced in some way at E3 this year
Click to expand...

The Halo fan in me wants them to announce an early beta.
The gamer in me thinks if they actually take the time out of their conference for Halo 6 stuff then it'll be because they have very little to show otherwise.

Didn't Phil say on the podcast that he doesn't want people to think he's going to magically pull out a AAA game for this year?

2018 looks like a desert right now. Some may say it's smart to hold back announcements till they're closer to coming out but in turn it just makes it feel like there's nothing coming on the horizon. Also doesn't help I have limited interest in Crackdown (first one was over 10 years ago and even then that game was OK), Sea of Thieves (Rare hasn't make a major first party non kinect games since Nuts and Bolts, plus being multiplayer focused with no real single player component or lone wolf friendly gameplay from the looks of it), and State of Decay (no the biggest zombie fan plus first game didn't grab me). Out of those three I'd say State of Decay will probably review the best.

Ah well :(
 
I'm not expecting anything else for the rest of 2018 except perhaps the sequel to Ori which is all but confirmed. The only major "surprise" I can imagine would be a new Forza sub-series that was teased awhile back. The real mystery is what awaits the Xbox brand in 2018 in beyond.

Halo 6 and a new Forza are givens, maybe a delayed game such as Sea of Thieves (which I actually think is likely).

My personal prediction is that Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries will be getting an Xbox port because it's technically a Microsoft IP. Everything else is a mystery.
 
Zukkoyaki said:
I'm not expecting anything else for the rest of 2018 except perhaps the sequel to Ori which is all but confirmed. The only major "surprise" I can imagine would be a new Forza sub-series that was teased awhile back. The real mystery is what awaits the Xbox brand in 2018 in beyond.

Halo 6 and a new Forza are givens, maybe a delayed game such as Sea of Thieves (which I actually think is likely).

My personal prediction is that Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries will be getting an Xbox port because it's technically a Microsoft IP. Everything else is a mystery.
Click to expand...

I read this as Mechwarrior 5, Mercenaries and got excited
 
I can't understand how some of you is still awaiting a new halo... aren't you tired? I mean, we just got halo 5, like one year ago... and I'm an halo fan. Let the IP rest for 5/6 years and do something new ffs.
 
Strootman said:
I can't understand how some of you is still awaiting a new halo... aren't you tired? I mean, we just got halo 5, like one year ago... and I'm an halo fan. Let the IP rest for 5/6 years and do something new ffs.
Click to expand...

Well there's fans of 343's Halo and just want more Halo. Then there's the fans who keep waiting for 343 to get it right. Lots of Halo fans still think we haven't received a true Halo title since 3 or Reach. We're like the Jewish people of Halo. An empty seat is always left open for Halo to return.
 
Wedzi said:
Well there's fans of 343's Halo and just want more Halo. Then there's the fans who keep waiting for 343 to get it right. Lots of Halo fans still think we haven't received a true Halo title since 3 or Reach. We're like the Jewish people of Halo. An empty seat is always left open for Halo to return.
Click to expand...

Do you hide a piece of Matzoh for Stinkles, Tashi, and Bonnie Ross to find?
 
Halo 5 was a great game, especially on the multiplayer side. The campaign was ok, maybe the story was shit but again halo never shined for the story. Now it's the exact time to move on and do something new. It would be so stupid to keep making halo, and sales will tell....
 
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