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[Jubenhimer]

Xbox Game Studios' Next gen showcase is happening in July, and there's a lot of excitement and speculation regarding what will be shown. Microsoft has been dead last in terms of quantity and quality of their first party lineup in recent years, so of all the main platform holders at the moment, they have the most to prove. What some people suggest is that Xbox mimic Sony in focusing on AAA action-adventure, cinematic games with a focus on set-pieces. I don't think that's the right approach though. By trying to ape Sony's style, many people will just see XGS as "Discount PlayStation" rather than a publisher with a unique voice.

What I think XGS should do, is establish themselves as the sort of "Anti-PlayStation". Which means making games and genres that Sony normally doesn't cover, or taking common PlayStation first party game tropes and mechanics, and subverting them, creating something unique in the process. It's a way better strategy than trying to be something you probably will never be.

If nothing else, Xbox Game Studios needs to show us exactly who they are as a publisher. One of Microsoft's problems in the past was that they never really had much of an identity as a game publisher compared to Sony or Nintendo, a problem magnified by the Xbox One's constant software droughts.

 

[M1chl]

They should create more memorable single-player only AA games.

Edit: That does not mean no AAA games, but do I want to wait 7 fucking years for a game? I am not 19 anymore.

 

[Hobbygaming]

My dream is that Xbox game studios makes some PlayStation-like exclusives

 

[Major_Key]

100% agreed.

My dream is that Xbox game studios makes some PlayStation-like exclusives

lol no.

Industry will not evolve like that.

That why Suicide squads is trash.

 

[Andodalf]

They kinda already are. GaaS titles like SoT and that weird hero shooter I forget the name of, Games like Halo Wars and gears tactics, isometric RPGs from Inexile, flight simulator. Weird mental games like project Mara. MS makes/ is making a ton of games that aren't your typical first party fare of years past

 

[Hobbygaming]

100% agreed.



lol no.

Industry will not evolve like that.

That why Suicide squads is trash.

Innovation can still be done. They don't have to copy the games to a tee. What I mean is big budget AAA exclusives with meaty campaigns

 

[MoreJRPG]

I really think we're going to see a run of huge open world RDR2 and Witcher like experiences from Xbox this upcoming gen. That and another first person shooter franchise(Perfect Dark?) considering Sony has all but given up on the genre.

 

[slade]

Sony leans hard into a niche and it has worked out well for them. MS can either try to mimic this or provide games that 3rd parties already make. Or, they could figure out some wholly untapped genre of gaming. Will be fun to see what they have in store.

 

[mejin]

They already are and they suffer for it.
People always wonder when MS will start to make top quality single player games like Sony.

 

[Jubenhimer]

They already are and they suffer for it.
People always wonder when MS will start to make top quality single player games like Sony.

Xbox does need more FP single player games sure. But I think they should have a unique style from that of Sony's.

 

[lastmessiah]

Microsoft has been dead last in terms of quantity and quality of their first party lineup in recent years, so of all the main platform holders at the moment, they have the most to prove. What some people suggest is that Xbox mimic Sony in focusing on AAA action-adventure, cinematic games with a focus on set-pieces.

I really hope they don't do this. Just leave that to Sony. All MS has to do to be the "anti-Playstation" is to make games that actually focus on being games.

People insist that MS 1st party is lower quality than Sony's, but this is of course subjective. I have less than zero interest in most of Sony's "great games" like Horizon, Spiderman, GOW. I don't think they're great games at all. I would much rather have stuff like Sea of Thieves and Halo and Forza.

Now if Sony comes out with a Silent Hill or a return to form like in the PS1 days, then it would be a different story.

 

[Connificent]

Cmon now. Sony doesnt even have one decent shooter. Xbox got Gears and Halo.

 

[Valentino]

I see where you're coming from. Besides, Xbox players trash Sony single player games. Apparently they're all the same...

 

[Vasto]

They will not be doing what Sony is doing. Xbox Game Studio's focus will be RPG.

Obsidian: RPG
Playground: RPG
InXile: RPG
Rare: RPG

If 343 is really working on another Halo project I hope it also is a RPG. I think a AAA Halo RPG would be amazing.

phil spencer says xbox should focus on rpgs - Kotaku

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.co.uk

 

[LeVictorien]

I don't want MS to start pumping similar games from all of their studios. If one or two start pumping games like Sony studios ok I don't mind but I rather they keep away from copy pasting a single style.

 

[CatLady]

My dream is that Xbox game studios makes some PlayStation-like exclusives

OH HELL NO!

One or two really good 3rd person action games is OK as long as they have GREAT stories is fine. With the exception of HZD and to a lesser extent TLOU the stories in Sony games were quite lacking to me.

Xbox already has much better variety coming up. It has the best 1st & 3rd person and tactical Shooter exclusives. It holds the crown for the best exclusive racing games in addition to some great niche and/or smaller games like Flight Sim 2020, Sea of Thieves, Psychonauts, Ori etc.

Up til now both Xbox and Sony were totally lacking in 1st party WRPGs, but now Xbox has a bunch of WRPG developers and that's what I can't wait to see from them.

 

[Yoboman]

They will not be doing what Sony is doing. Xbox Game Studio's focus will be RPG.

Obsidian: RPG
Playground: RPG
InXile: RPG
Rare: RPG

If 343 is really working on another Halo project I hope it also is a RPG. I think a AAA Halo RPG would be amazing.

phil spencer says xbox should focus on rpgs - Kotaku

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.co.uk

I expect Playground and Rare would be more "RPG lite" like Horizon

 

[Hayabusabruh]

Games should be the type of games Sony makes. It's entertaining to be taken on a cinematic roller coaster and be engaged in characters and story telling. Microsoft going to keep putting out these gather supplies with friends games. No personality. No voices. Grounded is so fucking stupid!

 

[Xenon]

They kind of were. Crackdown is the perfect example of this. A fun game that focused more on gameplay than presentation. (I'm completely ignoring the whole multiplayer debacle)

 

[Bkdk]

Just focus on the PC again, pumping out games like flight, AOE, AOM, more crpgs and PC focused open world RPGs would be the best way to go. Also bring back AAA JRPGs and let Japanese developers to create the most attractive looking characters possible. They should also take the Deus ex franchise from Square enix. Sony love to do their linear storyline games and MS should focus on doing rpgs that puts huge focus on choice and consequence, plus being extremely customizable and fully moddable on the PC. Honestly with AOE4, flight and wasteland 3, I'm already far more excited for MS' lineup compared to anything Sony's planning to do with ps5.

 

[Vasto]

I expect Playground and Rare would be more "RPG lite" like Horizon

Well if Playground is really doing Fable that better be a true AAA RPG. Everwild looks like it could be a hybrid Adventure / RPG or something. Even Undead Labs at one time was working on a RPG named Class 4 but I think it got scrapped and they did State of Decay. State Of Decay should also drop the survival and go RPG.

 

[theclaw135]

All is meaningless without first party JRPGs.

 

[evanft]

Well most of what they've made this gen has been trash, so that's pretty much the complete opposite of Sony. Guess they're there already.

 

[Yoboman]

Well if Playground is really doing Fable that better be a true AAA RPG. Everwild looks like it could be a hybrid Adventure / RPG or something. Even Undead Labs at one time was working on a RPG named Class 4 but I think it got scrapped and they did State of Decay. State Of Decay should also drop the survival and go RPG.

Why do people think Playground is making a Fable game rather than their own IP?

 

[Andodalf]

All is meaningless without first party JRPGs.

Tales of Vesperia 2 coming to counter FF7:R

 

[RetroAV]

The only thing from Sony that they need to start copying is Sony's production values. Sony's lineup has (for the most part) a consistent quality to them. Microsoft's lineup looks AA by comparison. Microsoft needs to start showing that they care about the games they release. More Gears 5's, less State of Deacy 2's.

 

[lastmessiah]

All is meaningless without first party JRPGs.

I seriously think we might see these from Microsoft soon.

 

[Hobbygaming]

OH HELL NO!

One or two really good 3rd person action games is OK as long as they have GREAT stories is fine. With the exception of HZD and to a lesser extent TLOU the stories in Sony games were quite lacking to me.

Xbox already has much better variety coming up. It has the best 1st & 3rd person and tactical Shooter exclusives. It holds the crown for the best exclusive racing games in addition to some great niche and/or smaller games like Flight Sim 2020, Sea of Thieves, Psychonauts, Ori etc.

Up til now both Xbox and Sony were totally lacking in 1st party WRPGs, but now Xbox has a bunch of WRPG developers and that's what I can't wait to see from them.

I hear what you're saying but Playstation consoles always have great variety

Next generation GT7 will see a resurgence as it's going back to its roots (from what we know) and the reveal showed that PS5 has a lot of variety already

 

[Mr Hyde]

I prefer it when the big three are carving out their own path. It's redundant to have three companies doing the same thing and fighting over the same audience. And this time, it seems that all three are headed In different directions.

Microsoft: Services/ Cloud gaming/ Streaming/ MP-centric games/ BC/ Gamepass/ focus on PC and Windows

Sony: AAA-singleplayer games/ dedicated hardware tailor made for their studios / first party focus/ audio and sound/ VR/ third party relations

Nintendo: Hybrid gaming on the go/ family centric games and image/ strong first party IP/ indies/ quality of life/ innovation and various quirks

At least, that's how I see it.

 

[Stuart360]

Why do people think Playground is making a Fable game rather than their own IP?

Thats what the old rumours were. You would of thought they would give Fable to Obsidian though, although the rumours were from way before they even bought Obsidian.

 

[LeVictorien]

Games should be the type of games Sony makes. It's entertaining to be taken on a cinematic roller coaster and be engaged in characters and story telling. Microsoft going to keep putting out these gather supplies with friends games. No personality. No voices. Grounded is so fucking stupid!

Thank god not everyone thinks like that.

 

[Andodalf]

Thats what the old rumours were. You would of thought they would give Fable to Obsidian though, although the rumours were from way before they even bought Obsidian.

Yeah I'm pretty sure Fable has been in the works at least in pre production for a while. Obsidian is working on ToW dlc and sequel for sure, a non combat rpg, and the. It's rumored to have a Skyrim Esque AAA rpg as the big project.

 

[wolffy71]

Idk. MS is more multiplayer focused which some people prefer. Most of their big titles have extensive multiplayer and i think they should keep it that way. Let sony, for the most part, tell the single player stories.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Lean into multiplayer. Sony looks flat footed on what has become a revalation over the last two-three years. Social, multiplayer gaming has insane growth potential.

Meanwhile Sony like "Demons Souls..."

 

[Trogdor1123]

100% agreed.



lol no.

Industry will not evolve like that.

That why Suicide squads is trash.

Why does it need to evolve again? They way things are currently going isn't a good thing

 

[Vawn]

Well, PlayStation has all the 10/10 and GOTY winning games covered.

 

[eastwood333]

I don't know why you can't have both. The big AAA story driven games and the smaller games like State of Decay, Wasteland, Gears Tactics,Grounded,etc.

Whether you like it or not, games like TLOU, Spiderman,GOW, Horzion Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima are system sellers. You make it sound like "story driven/cinematic games" is a bad thing. The games I listed abover are more than just cinematic/story driven games. They have good stories,production values but also great gameplay.

I want MS to follow sonys approach and that's the only way they're going to improve or gain a lot marketshare and get out of the rut they're currently in. There is a reason why people having been cheerleading MS to go after sony and have there own Uncharted/TLOU/GOW(Ryse anyone?) I may sound like a sony fanboy (anyone who reads my post knows that i'm an Xbox fan)but if there is one thing sony is masters at, it's 1st party AAA exclusives. MS should learn from Sony in this regard.

What you just describe sounds like more of the same to me and I don't think that's a good strategy. MS should focus on the big AAA games that Sony is great at and the smaller scope games. Its about variety and reaching out to all kinds of gamers

 

[Jubenhimer]

Lean into multiplayer. Sony looks flat footed on what has become a revalation over the last two-three years. Social, multiplayer gaming has insane growth potential.

Meanwhile Sony like "Demons Souls..."

Well to be fair to Sony, they have recognized that as a weakpoint, which is why they're betting big on Destruction AllStars as its big first party multiplayer game.

 

[Vawn]

Microsoft already does this.

Sony concentrates heavily on super high quality single-player experiences. Microsoft is much more interested in Games As A Service that people play for longer periods of time and provide a continuous revenue from their players.

That and A or AA games that can be pumped out quickly to keep.people subscribed to their monthly rental service and count on that guaranteed money every month.

 

[Psykodad]

100% agreed.



lol no.

Industry will not evolve like that.

That why Suicide squads is trash.

Yet Hellblade 2 will the best thing to release on Xbox since the 360 days.

 

[Jubenhimer]

I don't know why you can't have both. The big AAA story driven games and the smaller games like State of Decay, Wasteland, Gears Tactics,Grounded,etc.

Whether you like it or not, games like TLOU, Spiderman,GOW, Horzion Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima are system sellers. You make it sound like "story driven/cinematic games" is a bad thing. The games I listed abover are more than just cinematic/story driven games. They have good stories,production values but also great gameplay.

I want MS to follow sonys approach and that's the only way they're going to improve or gain a lot marketshare amd get out of the rut they're currently in.

What you just describe sounds like more of the same to me and I don't think that's a good strategy. MS should focus on the big AAA games that Sony is great at and the smaller scope games. Its about variety and reaching out to all kinds of gamers

I do think Microsoft should improve its AAA single player offerings. What I'm saying is that whatever direction they decide on, they need to find an identity and style that is unique from Sony's. They can't afford to be "diet PlayStation", they need more games that define the Xbox as a brand.

 

[Hobbygaming]

Lean into multiplayer. Sony looks flat footed on what has become a revalation over the last two-three years. Social, multiplayer gaming has insane growth potential.

Meanwhile Sony like "Demons Souls..."

Ironically this is why I love Sony

There's 1.5 million different multiplayer focused games. Long live single player games

 

[eastwood333]

I do think Microsoft should improve its AAA single player offerings. What I'm saying is that whatever direction they decide on, they need to find an identity and style that is unique from Sony's. They can't afford to be "diet PlayStation", they need more games that define the Xbox as a brand.

They need to make there own big AAA games on the same "scale" as many Sony exclusives. Not be direct copies. I get what you're saying. Hopefully the rumors of A Playground Fable, Obsidian Skyrim like AAA rpg, rumored The Initiative Perfect Dark etc are true. InXile is turning into a AAA studio and what ever those guys do i'm sure will be very creatives and unique.

I'd love to see a new Banjo Kazooie 3 with a AAA budget with a high caliber studio. I'd love to see MS fund a new Otogi by From Software. I'd love to see a new AAA MechAssault. A new AAA Shadowrun. I'd love to see MS give another shot with Itagaki on a spiritual successor to Ninja Gaiden. I'd love to see MS fund a new AAA JRPG FF killer( Lost Odyssey 2?)I'd love to see MS make another go at it with Platinum Games.

There's a lot MS can do.

 

[Vawn]

Ironically this is why I love Sony

There's 1.5 million different multiplayer focused games. Long live single player games

But it's hard to microtransaction to hell the single-player crowd. We must demand more Games As A Service!!!

 

[Cert.in.Death]

I agree with you OP. Chasing Sony's style of development will always leave to being compared against them. They have their own identity with games in the vein of Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and other persistent, blue ocean approaches rather than the blockbuster, cinema crossovers Sony pioneers.

 

[Psykodad]

Well to be fair to Sony, they have recognized that as a weakpoint, which is why they're betting big on Destruction AllStars as its big first party multiplayer game.

Shawn Layden also stated that Sony will be focusing more on multiplayer games.

 

[Three]

They already are which is fine. I have one issue with MS first party output.

Their business model of selling online subscriptions has pushed them towards multiplayer online games. This was alright back then but they started to get lower budget there too. You started to get state of decay, sea of thieves, crackdown 3 and bleeding edge. Now their second subscription (gamepass) on top of the online subscription (live) may push them back towards a more balanced single player and multiplayer output but I'm still not convinced about the budget/quality part.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I feel like MS' output is different enough as it is - their games are distinctly different experiences that cover a wider array of genres (well, if you include the second party stuff, anyway). They're just boring.

IMHO etc etc. Get over it.

 

[jakinov]

Ironically this is why I love Sony

There's 1.5 million different multiplayer focused games. Long live single player games

I don't know if Sony explicitly pushed single-player games more than that was what their devs happen to want to make single-player games. In the past they seemed to push on the online aspect of games. I think they even said at one point they wanted all their games to have an online component. Which was what I think lead to the user-generated content in Infamous 2, Uncharted multiplayer, God of War multiplayer, and Ratchet and Clank multiplayer. It was at a time that many publishers believed that multiplayer was how you get more new game sales which was further enforced by online passes that Sony took a part of. There was a rumor around that time that the reason Socom was having so many problem was that Sony kept pushing them to try to be more like COD. Future/maybe-present, the last head said they want to do more multiplayer. So maybe that's why Horizon is rumored to have co-op.

 

[Great Hair]

Which means making games and genres that Sony normally doesn't cover, or taking common PlayStation first party game tropes and mechanics, and subverting them, creating something unique in the process.

Isn't that kinda too late? The event is next month. Those game are done and done. Everwild is so far their most interesting working title. The others have been shown already, like Grounded (forgot who´s behind it). Hope for sumtin new, but also a lot of old faces, smoking tires and sweaty bandanas/headbands.