• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

What does Microsoft need to do to improve the perception that they struggle to release games?

Umbasaborne

Banned
I think games like hifi rush are a great start, but the wait for games like perfect dark, avowed, fable, state of decay, and forza motorsport is getting to be a little ridiculous when you consider they were announced 3 years ago. I dont think the pandemic is a valid excuse because sony and nintendo have been able to release first party games these past 3 years without issue, even if some of them got delayed. So what can microsoft do?

We know that there is a lot of talent in their first party teams. Microsoft should continue to allow them to flex their creative muscles to put out more games like ori, pentiment, and hifi rush. These games may not have the big budget bombast of gears of war, but they dont need it. These games can be produced for much less money and on quicker timelines then their big budget counterparts. Games like this are great for filling out Microsoft's line up while we wait for the big games to comes out, and they should continue making them.

As for the big games, its no secret that triple a games take longer then ever to make and are more expensive to create then they’ve ever been, especially when they get stuck in development hell like halo infinite was and perfect dark is rumored to be.

One way microsft can mitigate peoples expectations is by waiting until these games are much closer to launch before announcing them, and also being realistic about the time frames in which they will release. Touting starfield and forza as “next 12 month games” last year was marketing blunder. It incorrectly set fan expectations and was likely just as frustrating to the dev team as it was for us.

Think about how different the narrative would be if forza were announced for the first time earlier this year at the developer direct with a 2023 window. People would have been very excited. Instead the headline was “forza motorsport delayed”. It should not have been revealed in 2020. It was a mistake to reveal those games as early as they did.

My hope is that microsoft learned a hard lesson from this, and will announced their big games within 6 months to a year of them actually releasing. This year i don't want to see any new big announcements from them, i just want them to give us meaningful updates on what has already been announced, and i want them to give us a realistic time frame about when we can expect them, even if that means not providing a time frame yet.
 
Last edited:

Puscifer

Member
Release games? It's not rocket science.

I'm not saying Gears Forza and Halo are bad series, far from it, but the reason I jumped to PC and dumped Xbox and kept a playstation is strictly because there are experiences you just can't get on a PC that are on a Sony console, you can say their porting policy has ruined it but when I want to play something I'm not waiting 2 years for it.
 

Kvally

Member
Project management at MS is not good. I knew that they had acquired devs that were making new ips and it would take awhile, but that isn't our problem. They should have thought about that years ago when they were developing the Xbox Series. That said, it seems like they are ready to finally hit a stride this year with giving us Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, High on Life and now finally a line up of games for the rest of 2023 (Redfall, Age of Empires 4, Forza Motorsport, Starfield, Replaced). But it does make me worry about 2024, which they have announced nothing for next year at all.
 

Flutta

Banned
The better question is what can you do yourself to change your perception that Microsoft had no games.
Pretend they have games?
imagine spongebob squarepants GIF
 
Last edited:

Umbasaborne

Banned
The better question is what can you do yourself to change your perception that Microsoft had no games.
Its not a perception issue that they launched their system without a new first party game, and its not a perception issue that they had no triple a titles last year except for a port of deathloop. Thankfully things are starting to improve. If they can have more consistent years like this or 2021 then great.
 

Pelta88

Member
Get Phil Spencer to stop wasting time doing meaningless interviews, podcasts, and focus on delivering games. If Phil was half as enthusiastic about delivering great experiences as he is meaningless PR sound bites, XBOX would be in an incredible position.

2022's release schedule was a complete and utter farce. In the fact that it didn't actually exist.
 

angrod14

Member
They need to stop buying shit and start working with what they have, which is more than enough. Their problem is internal management, not lack of development/human talent.

Earning more money won't fix your financial issues if you don't know how to manage your resourses. Those who can't deal with little, won't be able to deal with much.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
If 2023 had ended up like 2022, I would have sold off my Xbox. I have almost lost my patience.
I did, i moved over to pc. 2022 was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I will give ms credit where its due. They are doing backwards compatibility better than anyone in the industry right now. For that reason alone id consider picking up a series s some time next year to have access to my 360 library
 

Kvally

Member
I did, i moved over to pc. 2022 was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I will give ms credit where its due. They are doing backwards compatibility better than anyone in the industry right now. For that reason alone id consider picking up a series s some time next year to have access to my 360 library
As I mentioned in another thread, with Xbox putting all their games on PC, and PS slowly putting games on PC (and I don't care if I have to wait), I have considered PC possibly in the near future and dumping both consoles next gen. It's been 20 years since I built a PC for gaming. I haven't had a PC at home since then. I do love the online is free on PC. I ended auto renew on my XBL/PSN subs. PSN is done, XBL expires next April. I am not renewing.
 

Havoc2049

Member
Release good games on a consistent basis.

I think they are on a roll right now. All their Live Service/multiplayer/MMOs are recieveing updates, some of them are major updates. In the span of around 13 months, they will have released Grounded, Pentiment, High-Fi Rush, Age of Empires II DE (console) , Redfall, and Starfield. Forza Motorsport and Age of Empires IV (console) will most likely hit this Fall and who knows what else might hit this Fall/Winter as well. In this day and age, with long dev cycles, you can't get much better than that.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
For people saying ”just release games” i mean if that was so simple they wouldn’t be struggling. I think it goes much deeper then that.

The core of Xbox is broken on so many levels that they are desperate to fix it by buying up established IP’s and publishers.
It is as simple as "just release games", though.

Step one of doing that is to hire someone who can drive game releases. And if you already have someone in charge of that fire them and probably their boss as well. The sickness obviously runs deep.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
For people saying ”just release games” i mean if that was so simple they wouldn’t be struggling. I think it goes much deeper then that.

The core of Xbox is broken on so many levels that they are desperate to fix it by buying up established IP’s and publishers.
True, of course, but it is the only way for them to shift perception at this stage - Phil pledging to do more won't shift the needle a millimeter. Hi-Fi Rush felt so genuine and brilliant because marketing stooges hadn't been hyping it up for three years straight. I think the message is not just 'release games' it's 'less talking, more doing'.
 
Last edited:

Umbasaborne

Banned
True, of course, but it is the only way for them to shift perception at this stage - Phil pledging to do more won't shift the needle a millimeter. Hi-Fi Rush felt so genuine and brilliant because marketing stooges hadn't been hyping it up for three years straight. I think the message is not just 'release games' it's 'less talking, more doing'.
Exactly, i dont want to hear any lofty promises that will just end up broken like the “next 12 months” angle they took at last years games showcase.
 

Solidus_T

Banned
They need to focus on studios that they already own and manage them properly. After the Zenimax acquisition, they have more studios than both of their competitors, yet they are still focusing all of their attention on getting public support for their acquisition of ABK to own COD. This is the wrong move
 
Release games
This. Just this.
Seconded. They need to release games. And to work with partners to a good conclusion. For me for years I would look at Xbox E3 presentations, see great trailers(CGI or gameplay) and go to sleep knowing that none of those games will convince me to buy a Xbox one. Recore, Scalebound, Crackdown 3...
I am not saying that Xbox has no games, but that they fail to be perceived as a plus to a parnership outside of money. When Sony put Fall Guys on PSN+ not long after the hype of the PS5 future of gaming video and a few months after TLOU2 and Ghost of tsushima. We got a good year from Sony then. Sony helped Fall guys, even if you just consider the marketing side of it. When I see Stray or Sifu, even if I did not play those games, I know that they are good, just not must have at the moment to me. Sony is always involved early in the creation of games, even when just for a marketing deal. Remember No Man's sky?
It get worse when you talk about people who do not have Xbox consoles and never tried the good games they had. Without playing old Halo games, no nostalgia and no reason to believe in Halo Infinite once the Craig trailer happened.
Stop talking about games before they are ready is evidence. Sony stopped doing that after Killzone 2 I think?
Phil on the recent Xbox on interwiew described exclusives in a elegant way: "they are marketing beats for the platform and we see that our competitors have a lot of exclusives games"

To change the perception that they struggle they need to ship games, make people play those games, and they have to be happy about it, to the point of wanting for more from them. And they must do this often enough to offset their competitors and third parties games.
By making their games go PC day one and putting all the games that they can do on Gamepass they should have easily done this right? But it is not ?
Part of the difficulty is that games that they brought are not considered theirs. If they had commisioned Hi fi rush like they did SCaleboud it would have been more easily seen theirs if you see what I mean.
The second is that making new IP is good but harder to do when technical innovations are slowing down. Few games that are being made for PS4 could not have been made for PS3 outside of resolution and framerate. Titanfall and MGS5 showed this. New genres were created as soon as they were possible, like open worlds with GTA, realistic sports games...
It is harder to do something new. But you have to, because when you have a formula that work it is easy to refine it and make sequels of it. Because Sony took the risk to make GOW 2018 and Spiderman and made them good an successful we can wait for their sequels and be relatively safe in believing that the sequels will be good, or even great. Same for Zelda. From Xbox we got the "Halo, Gears Forza" because they are some of the few games that are good enough to give nostalgia like Mario or Sonic did to people. And even if you do not play those games you know that they were considered good, and still are in most cases.

Xbox slowed down from the end of the 360 to only trying again a few years ago in a sense. And by not having hits like TLOU they are having difficulties to struggle against Sony and Nintendo because not only they loose a hit game by not having it(duh) but they loose the hype that a sequel to that hit would made AND the trust that got with it. I trust the makers of GOW, TLOU, Ratchet & Clank to give me a new game like the ones I liked from them and trust the company that made all of that possible. But because I did not try Xbox games; I have no nostalgia. So less trust in Xbox and incentive to try, because why do it when I already have games that cater to me on my Playstation?

Gamepass is the best deal in gaming. But not the best deal for my gaming experience. I played Elden ring for months. I played GOW Ragnarok to have my first platinum ever and it took me from November to the end of January. No need to have Gamepass in all those months. Soon Starfield will arrive. And that is a game that interest me. But not a game that Xbox seems to have helped make better outside of making it exclusive. So even when I will play it I will not consider it a Xbox game, because it was not made entirely under Xbox umbrella. This is my feeling and to change it will need time. I do not consider Destiny a Sony game either, for they did not have that much to do with it. But I accept Minecraft as part of Xbox, because of time and seeing what they did with the IP(and games like Linecraft dungeons...)
Now with time some of their new studios will release games (I hope) and a few will hopefully be successful. Like Rare Sea of thieves. Just have to wait for it. Again.
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
They need to release a must play game that is full of meme's and is so much fun that the internet is doing nothing but playing it, talking about it, drawing fan art of it.

Just realeasing a bunch of games isn't going to do it. They need to be fun, good, must play over anything else available games.

Good Luck Microsoft.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
Keep buying up the top third party publishers and IPs that are cyclical with their games.

Boom: Instant "1st party" releases.

Imagine no Bethesda going into the 3rd year of the new machines.
 
Last edited:

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Pray cloud and subscription gaming takes off.....then fuck everything.
That 70 billi pays for itself.
 
Top Bottom