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Why doesnt MS just port games on their own?

BeOnEdge

Banned
instead of wasting money buying everyone, why not just secure the rights to certain games for example Virtua Fighter 4 and port it themselves? Remember back in the sega CD days before capcom was officially a sega 3rd party and sega got the rights for final fight and ported and published it themselves? Not only giving us what capcom wouldnt but also managing to give us the absolute best version of final fight ever? Why dont companies do things this way anymore?
 
BeOnEdge said:
instead of wasting money buying everyone, why not just secure the rights to certain games for example Virtua Fighter 4 and port it themselves? Remember back in the sega CD days before capcom was officially a sega 3rd party and sega got the rights for final fight and ported and published it themselves? Not only giving us what capcom wouldnt but also managing to give us the absolute best version of final fight ever? Why dont companies do things this way anymore?
maybe they can't buy what's not for sale?
and some companies dont want ther IP in the hands of MS?
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
how is today any different than it was yesterday? sega could have stole stuff from final fighter for is newest streets of rage back then.
 

lexy

Member
IIRC, Sony had an agreement with Sega that VF4 would appear exclusively on the PS2 so in this case I don't think Sega could have allowed Microsoft to port VF4 without violating this agreement.

Had this not being the case, another much more likely factor prohibiting the types of arrangements you describe is the cost of liscensing a game that is very likely to be successful. The developers of the game would probably be asking for more than the publisher is willing to pay.
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
i dont think anyone even tries to go this route anymore unless its for all the wrong reasons. didnt MS do it with shenmue 2?
 
I'd have to agree with The Faceless Master, it's a two-way street. Microsoft can't just come in and tell a company that their game is being ported (though I'm sure they'd like to). I mean there was absolutely no way EA would have let MS make their own version of Madden with online play a couple years back for example. Both parties have to be able to agree. Some companies guard certain properties very jealously, and some companies have an overinflated opinion of the value of their properties (which might be justified in certain cases), making it pretty hard to justify the price.

And depending on the situation, buying companies may or may not be a "waste". I mean they reportedly bought Bungie for $50 million, which was a huge bargain. And then there have been other deals where the economics really don't make sense at all.

But in general, I kind of agree with you BeOnEdge, though not just for MS or the 1st parties. I'm surprised there isn't a little more dealing going on between 3rd parties. Particularly, I would think there is a bit of an oppurtunity for western publishers to bring more Japanese games to the Xbox, and Japanese publishers to bring more western games to the Cube. For example, since Capcom is kind of lukewarm towards the Xbox, and Take 2 isn't big on the Cube, they could probably benefit from handing off some of their games to each other.
 

DCX

DCX
BeOnEdge said:
that was a pointless move though.
Pointless? It was the only way to play Shenmue II on a US system. It didn't sell, but what do you expect...it isn't GTA.

DCX
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
it was the only way because MS derailed the DC version. everyone who wanted to play it on the DC did. IIRC shenmue 2 is the best selling import ever.
 

DCX

DCX
MS derailed it? Wasn't Sega who decided not to release it on DC in the US? Oh, by the way...where's the rest of my story Yu, i need the rest of it!!

DCX
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
i'm sure MS had a hand in it. almost positive IIRC. its actually the reason i bought the xbox last. i hated MS for it. and yes we do need part 3. BADLY.
 

DCX

DCX
BeOnEdge said:
I'm sure MS had a hand in it. almost positive IIRC. its actually the reason i bought the xbox last. i hated MS for it. and yes we do need part 3. BADLY.
You know, for as much as Shenmue was supposed to be the end all be all, it did impress alot of people, the game really opened people's eyes but why does it get blasted by the media/fan boys?? Every game has it's share of problems but i don't think Shenmue ever had a problem that hinder it from being enjoyable.

DCX
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
they havent played it thats why. shenmue plays EXACTLY like riddick but with more story/exploration and no weapons IMO yet senmue sucks and riddick owns. by the way, if you havent played riddick yet and like shenmue, play riddick.
 
DCX said:
You know, for as much as Shenmue was supposed to be the end all be all, it did impress alot of people, the game really opened people's eyes but why does it get blasted by the media/fan boys?? Every game has it's share of problems but i don't think Shenmue ever had a problem that hinder it from being enjoyable.

DCX
problem: it wasn't "fun"
 
I was watching G4 the other day, and it was kind of funny that they had 2 back to back episodes of Filter, one was counting down the best Dreamcast games and the other was the worst games of all time, and Shenmue was near the top of both lists.

Where were you all that day? The day of that incident.
 

goodcow

Member
FitzOfRage said:
I was watching G4 the other day, and it was kind of funny that they had 2 back to back episodes of Filter, one was counting down the best Dreamcast games and the other was the worst games of all time, and Shenmue was near the top of both lists.

Where were you all that day? The day of that incident.

They can go fuck themselves.
 

jarrod

Banned
loxy said:
IIRC, Sony had an agreement with Sega that VF4 would appear exclusively on the PS2 so in this case I don't think Sega could have allowed Microsoft to port VF4 without violating this agreement.
Excusivity was for one year only. Evolution and Final Tuned could've been viable XBox releases.
 

BeOnEdge

Banned
if sega released VF final tuned on XBOX with LIVE play, it could singlehandedly move atleast 150k hardware units instantly in japan IMO.
 
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