And yet their studio lineup is better than ever. And Mattrick almost destroyed the entire brand, that seems worse than whatever nonsense you're making up.
What is the deal with Phil Spencer?
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And yet their studio lineup is better than ever. And Mattrick almost destroyed the entire brand, that seems worse than whatever nonsense you're making up.
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Imagine if the dude had spent $80B and somehow ended up worse than before... well, maybe we won't have to imagine given what they were able to show so far. Starfall and Redfall sure didn't look like $7B worth and good luck fixing the circus that is Activsion Blizzard in the next few years. Where are the games from all these studios that were bought?
Sony bought Insomniac at around the same time, for a fraction of the price and they released 2 AAA games already, not to mention that Miles Morales alone likely sold more than any AAA MS game in ages.
Just feels like weird wording IMO. Again, they use that specific phrase for games that will eventually go to non-MS consoles after a set date, but it's always with 3P games, not 1P ones. I don't see why they would bring it to Switch partly because what has MS really gotten back from Nintendo in these exchanges so far? AFAIK, no Nintendo game's come to Xbox, no Nintendo character cameos in MS-owned properties either like Sea of Thieves, Forza (why not make a F-Zero DLC instead of yet more Hot Wheels?), Minecraft etc.
OTOH, they've actually gotten MLB The Show from SSD, and if people want to suddenly cut Valve/Steam out of the PC platform equation and just jump straight to Windows, a handful of older PS exclusives with PC ports now. So at least Sony's actually "given" them something, on that front it coming to PS would seem more earned.
Tho honestly, I think something like Pentiment is going to struggle badly on any platform without GamePass, it just doesn't compare favorably to a lot of higher-end indie or AA games coming out today at a glance. It would probably do better on Switch because it still compares favorably with some of the glut of shovelware Nintendo lets on the eShop, and might appeal to the Octopath/Chrono Trigger/Live a Live style audience there too.
Just measure it, at this stage.
Psychonauts 2 doesn't have a PS5 native version
Psychonauts 2 is fully playable on PS5 and thus available for said PS5
Most people don't care about Psychonauts 2.
Unfortunately. I say, because it does look like a cool platformer. But MS did virtually no marketing for it at all, which essentially doomed it. The game didn't have enough of a "hook" to gain big WOM like Among Us, Fall Guys etc., and just throwing a mention or two of it in GamePass adverts did not help, either.
Just another example where MS IMO kind of failed to help elevate some of their talent; they HAVE to seriously market/advertise these games more along traditional methods, can't just rely on tweets and WOM for everything that isn't Halo.
One X was very good hardware but we never really saw any games that truly pushed what it could do. Similar could be said for PS4 Pro but Sony's own exclusives definitely pushed it harder than games from MS or 3P on One X. Series X is only the "most powerful" console on paper; it has a lot more CUs and raw RAM bandwidth, slightly faster CPU and MAYBE lower-precision INT perf, but PS5 doesn't have a virtualized memory segmentation problem, has a much faster GPU, faster GPU caches, cache scrubbers (means less hits out to RAM for data saving on latency penalties), cache coherency engines (to sync data in RAM and storage accesses to ensure they match), and more robust SSD I/O memory subsystem, as well as higher pixel fillrate.
So there's really no way to say Series X is more powerful when it's measurably weaker in several key areas to PS5 (same as PS5 is measurably weaker in a few areas to Series X). I'd say Series X's advantages would most take shape when Mesh Shaders take off but, PS5 can do Mesh Shading as well, just like how Series X can do Primitive Shading. However, some changes to each system's architectures as well as what their SDK APIs are built around to truly leverage, mean each system favors one approach versus the other. Doesn't mean they can't perform the other method, though (considering they're both built into RDNA2).
Anyway about the other stuff; no one's really upset at him with acquiring Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground etc. The problem for some is that they also went ahead and bought Zenimax, and now ABK, when we've really yet to see results from the 2018 teams that we can say were 100% developed under Microsoft ownership and guidance. MS were struggling to manage teams like Rare and 343i, and now they're not only still struggling with said teams, but will be adding a ton of struggling ABK teams to that mix, and somehow we're supposed to expect ALL of these teams will be turned around for the better in a few short years? That's not realistic.
As for Sony, I don't see how you can say they aren't "knocking it out of the park", when their first two years with PS5 have been MUCH stronger than their first two years with ANY of their previous systems if just talking 1P. I can't even remember much for PS1 from Sony the first 2 years outside Time Crackers (I hope those get English translations some day) and Hermie Hammerhead. Motor Toon, Arc the Lad, Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, then Crash which was the best of that lot. PS2 their 1P teams had Dark Cloud and Fantavision. Parappa the Rapper 2 (which was a step down from UmJammer Lammy), GT3. PS3 was Uncharted, Motorstorm, Genji, Heavenly Sword and maybe Eye of Judgement?
Now compare that with PS5: Miles Morales, Demon's Souls Remake, Astro's Playroom, Little Big Adventure, Destruction All-Stars, Horizon Forbidden West, MLB The Show, Gran Turismo 7, Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart, and coming this year TLOU 1 Remake and GOW Ragnarok. I'm sorry but you don't have a lineup like that in just 1P alone just to get brushed off and say they're barely doing better than Microsoft in 1P output frequency. They've both been affected by COVID, as has Nintendo and the rest of the industry, but Sony have been managing it MUCH better and if part of that is also because they didn't let up the gas and arranged some big 3P exclusives prior to launch, so be it.
So in light of that, I think the criticisms towards Phil and Xbox management as a whole, the ones that aren't just outright toxic, are fair.
The problem with the brand though was always how Microsoft 1 treated it, and ran it, and that bleeds into the other part that was pre XBox which was Microsoft produced gaming software.
Which has been Phil' whole career. And he has done all but dick on that side.
You can't expand without spending money. Even most of the best studios Sony has today were obtained with money. I know you'll reply with some excuses nonsense as to how that was like, totally different! but I don't care. As for the games from the studios they already bought, uh idk try Google?
They bought six studios in 2018. Four have released games since then, one had just released one. The only one not to so far is Ninja Theory, and we know they have multiple projects in the works. They bought Double Fine in 2019 and they just gave us Psychonauts 2, which was amazing. They did the ZeniMax deal just last year and the first two games from them since already had exclusive deals lined up.
I mean sure, they could have bought all these studios, canceled the exclusive deals, killed off all the other versions of the games already in the works but why would anyone want that lol. You do understand games take years? And again, lets not act as if Sony has been killing it.
I honestly find weird that Xbox has a face that fans worship.
Sony pictures doesn’t have one.
Disney doesn’t have one.
Music labels don’t have one.
The most bizarre thing about Phil Spencer is that Xbox seems to be more about him that the games and xbox itself.
I find this truly bizarre.
Sony pictures doesn’t have one.
Disney doesn’t have one.
Music labels don’t have one.
The most bizarre thing about Phil Spencer is that Xbox seems to be more about him that the games and xbox itself.
I find this truly bizarre.
But NPD charts, and consecutive releases for first 2 years of PS5'S console life cycle being night and day better than previous PS4 GEN, I would say they are killing it. Even with the console being launched during covid. I mean how many games has MS put out internally? Forza, Halo are really the only thing I can think of that they internally produce.
I mean def output has been impacted on all sides. But when compared to previous gen in the same time frame they are night and day.
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- Phil purchased Ninja Theory in June 2018 when they had started working on the sequel. That was 4 years ago, and yet Hellbade 2 hadn't gone into full production as of June 2021. And we know that the game isn't releasing at least until June 2023.
- Phil purchased Undead Labs in June 2018 after SoD 2 released. It's 2022, and SoD3 is still in early production and stuck in development hell with the studio in disarray.
- Sea of Thieves released in March 2018. They have been working on Everwild since then and don't even know how the game is supposed to play. Game has been rebooted multiple times and is in dev hell. Nowhere to release anytime soon.
- Phil bought Playground in June 2018. Fable has been in development for 4+ years now and is nowhere close to being release with reports of development problems surfacing up.
- Phil bought Obsidian in Nov. 2018 because apparently Phil was impressed by Avowed. It has been almost 4 years since that, and Avowed is nowhere close to being finished or released. They loved the game so much they bought the studio, and yet the game itself has been rebooted multiple times and is now in (act surprised!) ... development hell. So Phil bought the studio because he loved the game they were making, and now the studio is not even making that version of the game anymore. lol
Playground released FH5 since being bought and are working on Fable.
Compulsion released We Happy Few and are working on something else.
Double Fine released Psychonauts 2 and have multiple projects in the works.
Obsidian released Outer Worlds and Grounded and have multiple projects in the works.
Ninja Theory has multiple projects in the works.
Undead Labs had just launched SoD2 and are working on SoD3.
InXile released Wasteland 3 and have multiple projects in the works.
So again, of the seven studios bought in 2018/19, six have released games and all are working on stuff. And outside of WHF and SoD2 (which I personally loved) these were all good to amazing titles. Sorry that they haven't pumped out a hundred small episodic movie games like everyone was predicting MS would fill GamePass with lol
And yeah, the COVID and timeline reasons absolutely do work to anyone with common sense.
Also Undead Labs was working exclusively with Microsoft since 2013. Similar to Insomniac. MS owned the IP, and helped them expand for State of decay 2 but it still had issues, and they were understaffed for the ambition of project.
Now they are trying to go from AA to AAA, and have been working on SOD3 since 2019. Sounds like they didn't have studio up to snuff support SOD2 and start early production on SOD3.
RARE, INITIATIVE, UNDEAD LABS, 343, FABLE TEAM(PLAYGROUND). Seen nothing from any of them, and in terms of 343, not enough support or transparency on where they are heading.
Regardless of when Undead labs was bought SOD3 was commissioned in 2019. We have seen nothing from these studios since their last release which for some is pre-2018.
Undead labs has had issues, Initiative has had issues, RARE has had issues, 343 still has issues. Playground games fable team were not ready let alone built before the announcement made in 2018.
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Anyway, how is it that MS doing "well" without games is good for anyone? Putrid output of games.
edit: I was tripping.
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Its actually kind of weird how quiet Xbox has been this year. Outside teh activision announcement and the showcase last month there hasnt been any major xbox news. Seems like last year they were on such a hot streak of marketing stuff.
By this account ps2 and ps1 games are also part of the ps3 library... Just sayin'
So he can't get blame for game output until somehow the studios MS runs release good games ... But he gets credit for the design of a console released in the same year he got the letters of CEO in his title
.And Sony not knocking out of the park... Oh well, go back playing Halo Infinite goty edition.
What is "the brand"? The logo?
Yup, the poor guy could not make any decisions until he had the magic CEO letters in his title.
Look up Spencer's career before 2014 would ya. Guy literally has been in a management position with Microsoft Game Studios(Xbox Game Studios) for a long ass time.
He had sway on things like specific projects. Don was the reason they actually made money, and green lit a lot of games, people forget that he was once a developer. Spencer was not.
Here's Matricks earlier years:
Though Mattrick was not perfect and was actually against XBox when he was with EA, he ended up making the division when he joined the most success the platform had ever seen.
Alot of that was Kinect, but he also was key on a lot of partnerships for games.
I think if he had not overstepped on xbox one, he still would have a job.
Meanwhile Spencer had been with the company in the same position for like 20+ years? He managed a lot of their European studios like RARE. And look how that all ended up?
He also handled Lionhead??? Look at how that ended up?
RARE has put out one game the entire gen last gen. 1 fucking game. It's been 5 years and their new game Everwild has restarted twice.
Phil sucks at managing software period.
People forget that Phil Spencer was managing their game studios during Kinect Hell and leading into the Xbox One era. Most of the best games XBO had at launch were due to deals Mattrick was willing to make.
And even their recent acquisitions have had Nadella stepping in and commenting, saying that they can't just "build" successful studios, having a more direct hand.
Idk man, it really seems sometimes that Phil has his position because he's a very charismatic and effective PR Mouthpiece more than anything. Which... honestly, they should have just given him Greenberg's job.
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