MS has lots of good faith in the industry allright, whether that good faith is generated by loot bags, free merch, money bags, ca-ching, it;s all the same. There is also something called American pride....I think lots want MS to persevere just because it's an American company vs a Japanese one.....Never forget how many Xfans viewed Jrpg's vs Western Rpg's, saying Sony mostly have Japanese games as a "slight"...None of the Japanese games could measure to the Mass Effects, Bioshocks etc in the 360 era...some said, vehemently..What good faith? Thy lost that over a decade ago with all their lies and bs and haven't let up. Only super fans believe anything they say.
Beyond that, it cannot be denied, that XBOX fans and the "gaming media" love them some "XBOX", they love Phil, can't stop giving him awards, even though he has done nothing noteworthy. Look at all the glowing articles the media painted for Series X after a failed XBOX one, they said the Series S/X was going to knock it out the park and PS was trending down. Remember all the fellating of gamepass by the media the last two years. Goodwill perhaps not based on quality games, but some one is definitely massaging some wallets for such goodwill. DF has lots of goodwill towards MS and it's fans are the most loyal I've ever seen...Case in point below.....They are willing to wait forever....
Come on now. To suggest Zipper, Big Big, Evolution, Cambridge and Studio Liverpool were failures in the same way as Compulsion Games, Undead Labs etc.... is indeed way out there. Those studios are now defunct and it's numbers, it's business, not game quality on their end. None of these MS studios you mentioned can match them in quality and visuals....I'd like to see any of these studios pull out a Motorstorm or DC, Wipeout, Crimson Skies, Socom, Drakan, G Police, Colony Wars, Twisted Metal, War of the Monsters, Ape Escape, Legend of Dragoon, Ico, SOTC, The Last Guardian.....and a million more treasured IP's at such high quality and acclaim for their respective time. These studios, their best games was not state of decay or we happy few, you need to concede this at least....Studio Liverpool alone has more hits and acclaimed games than all these MS studios put together.I get that your goal is to downplay Xbox Game Studios and their output but in the end you have to realize that AAA projects take time.
Starfield didn't get delayed because Microsoft bought Bethesda.
The "smaller studios" as you have called them like Compulsion Games, Undead Labs, Inxile, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Double Fine etc. started hiring and restructured to become AAA studios. They were mostly AA studios before. Again. New IP + AAA development time = Takes a lot of time.
It's no secret that 343i has management issues. It's always difficult to create a brand new AAA studio and manage them. Just ask Sony. They created Manchester Studio in 2015. And had to close them in 2020 because it didn't work out. Couldn't even release a VR game. They created Santa Monica Studio, they made God of War, struck gold, tried a new IP, it failed, they had to fire half of the studio and went back to God of War. If God of War 2018 had underperformed like GOW Ascension, Santa Monica Studio wouldn't be alive today. Sometimes things don't work out. Just ask the developers of the studios Sony closed. Studio Liverpool, Cambridge Studio, Bigbig Studio, Evolution Studio, Zipper Interactive, Incognito Entertainment, Japan Studio etc.
If it wasn't for the timed-exclusive deals Sony made for Ghostwire Tokyo and Deathloop, no one would really complain about Microsoft's output this gen. Microsoft's acquired AA studios are AAA studios now. Bethesda is getting ready for Starfield. And Activision-Blizzard will be a Microsoft company this year.
Microsoft will be fine. Xbox Game Studio will be a powerful force. With Bethesda + Activision + Blizzard + over 20 Xbox Game Studios like The Coalition, Ninja Theory, Double Fine etc. And having the best video game service on the market with Xbox Game Pass. The future is looking pretty good. I smell domination.
Happy gaming.
I know it's fun to make jokes about XGS because they had a weak 2022. But yeah, those years are gone.
Xbox even has its own mascots soon with Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon.
Besides, all of these Sony studios have been succeeded by other studios. Studio Japan is now Team Asobi, which has already developed a VR killer APP and is working on another. You say all the AA devs are transitioning to AAA, first I've heard of this, would be great to see, but who are we kidding. The Initiative was supposed to be AAAA and they can't even manage a reboot of an old game.......Ninja Theory is taking forever to finish Hellblade 2 so faith in Undead labs is not exactly sky high. At least Ninja Theory has delivered some decent AAA games, with lots of help of course, but we see them now under MS and we know the real picture.....I have less faith in these other indie studios to make the jump, but, don't ever think I'm here to squash your joy and optimism, if these studios can somehow transition and impress, I'll be sure to be happy along with you. Cheers...
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