What is the deal with Phil Spencer?
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Reggie they did, to a point.
Kaz... no. Even after he literally saved the entire company, no.
The problem isn't that they've spent money. It's that, more evidently as time goes on, they've spent at least some of it poorly. In light of development issues facing games like Everwild and Perfect Dark, should MS have rushed out to buy Zenimax or especially ABK, or should they have focused on investing into Rare & The Initiative, not just with money but with proper management and creative/pipeline guidance & leadership, instead?
Instead of spending $69 billion on ABK, should they have instead considered at least taking some funds to put in locking down a few more big 3P exclusives for Xbox and GamePass this year? Should they have been looking into a Banjo-Kazooie sequel years ago? If Playground Games can tackle Fable, why couldn't Coalition's next game had been a sequel to Killer Instinct?
As for the rest of what you're saying, well we know a PS5 version of Starfield WAS in development and MS had no issue shutting that down once they purchased Bethesda, so why did they not consider similar for Ghostwire Tokyo at the very least? And again, you keep saying Sony isn't "killing it" as if to suggest they're struggling as badly as MS in having consistent 1P output year over year, but this is factually false. Even if you prefer Halo Infinite, Flight Simulator, and Forza Horizon 5 over everything Sony's released the past two years, in terms of 1P content, MS has not had Sony's level of consistency and that's backed up with number of released games, review scores (highs vs. lows), and lasting impact of releases in both sales and mindshare.
Could Sony be doing better with 1P releases? Possibly. But relative to the average of MS's output 1P-wise for Xbox the past couple of years (let alone once you start taking 3P exclusives into account), the majority would say that Sony have definitely been "killing it".
Seeing Obsidian's trend visually with Grounded and now Pentiment, even The Outer Worlds in a few ways, and I'm kind of miffed with the possibility Avowed will look less like the reveal trailer and more like those games. Which have a very different tone from what the reveal trailer did.
Jez's own supposed insights into what he played (which apparently were good enough for him, but not the rest of us to see last month for some reason) just exacerbate that opinion on where Avowed is probably trending visually.
There's no need to slander cinematic games or Sony's games as "movie games" IMO; they're a style of game just as valid as any other, there's definitely way more to them than just walking around and looking at pretty cutscenes & graphics. Also if you're looking forward to games like Plague Tale: Requiem on GamePass then it's a weird slander because that game has a lot in common with Sony's big games in terms of being cinematic. Heck, that's the entire style of Ninja Theory's output while at it, outside that DMC reboot.
The issue with the games you mentioned are, none of them really did much in terms of having a lasting impact or being leaders in their respective spaces. That's what I feel games from a platform holder should be able to do. Sony have masterclass leadership in cinematic, third-person action-adventure style games and visual production values that lead the industry. Nintendo have masterclass leadership in third-person cartoony-style platformers with some of the absolute best-managed and most recognizable IP in the whole industry. MS only excel/lead in one specific type of game IMO: arcade racers (Forza Horizon) and arguably application simulators (Flight Simulator).
Their leadership in things like live-service games with Minecraft were not built in-house, they bought that from a company which did the vast majority of the legwork and made it a phenomenon on their own. The same can be said with what leadership they used to exhibit in the third-person cover-shooter space with Gears of War. Epic Games built that IP and made it famous, MS just purchased it when Epic wanted to move on to something else. Halo USED to be a masterclass, leader of the FPS genre, but it's gradually declined since Halo 3 and is now more or less an IP on life support, and that's happened under Microsoft's direct management.
So just to say, MS aren't doing enough in setting examples to lead the industry in whether it comes to graphics, animations, best-in-class game design or truly massive brand IP built in-house, to fulfill what I think they should be doing as a platform holder. It's why when it comes to the actual gaming software side of things, I have a lot more admiration for Nintendo, Sony, and Sega as platform holders either historically or today, than I do for Microsoft, because it's just so easy to pull up multiple examples of games from the three of them that either set standards for certain genres or the entire industry, that all other developers (competing 1P teams and 3P devs) strived to match, and all of that with software they made 100% in-house with their own homegrown dev teams (or cultivated over many, many years through strategic investments and leadership working almost exclusively with a platform holder to be seen as a 1P, like Insomniac with Sony).
Microsoft only has literally maybe two examples in their 20+ years in this industry as a platform holder where I can feel they'd exhibited industry leadership in terms of some aspects of game design: Halo and Forza Horizon. That's simply not enough IMO. So them just releasing some solid games here and there going forward, isn't enough either.
The sheer number of those that were already far into development or near completion at the time of purchase makes this rather disingenuous.
According to Wikipedia Phil was the guy who liked video games at MS
I mean he did, but he was never good at managing software and he held that position within Microsoft Studios then to xbox for a long ass time. And nothing of note came from it. Like he managed Lion head when they were making a Kinect game, and he managed them when they were making a game that tanked them which was the Fable moba game.
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Not replying to all of that, way too much. But two things:
1. Yes, MS should still go out and spend whatever on ActivisionBlizzard, because the chance to make a buy like that rarely ever happens.
2. I didn’t say anything about “Sony games” being movie games? Defensive much? Only talking about the nonsense people predicted GamePass games to be. Short, episodic low budget walk n talk games. That doesn’t sound like Sony games to me but hey, you do you.
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Gamepass has offered nothing great or special to gaming, and the demise of Netflix must have put the expectations in perspective at Microsoft in terms of potential for that kind of service for gaming.
Now for Sony, I'm not sure how someone can fail to see them as quality leaders in their published catalog... Since the very beginning of the ps1 as well. Obviously you don't have to be a fan, just like I am no fan of Nintendo, I can still respect their output. MS not so much, certainly not since after the first half of the 360's life cycle.
Yes but your list of games that launched since they were bought is almost all games that had the bulk of their development done at the time of purchase. That really doesn't speak to Phil's management skills at all really, positively or negatively.
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Netflix having trouble just show how absurd MS vision for the gaming market is.
- Gaming is consumed in a way that makes it less suitable to subscription (You can buy a game like Yakuza 0 for $5 and take weeks to finish it).
- People were actually fine paying for games already in the console space, while very few people were buying movies/TV shows a la carte.
- People were fine being ripped off by the online multiplayer paywall, so MS was already getting a good chunk of that money without doing anything.
- No console gaming service is ever going to reach the numbers a movie/TV streams like Netflix already have reached.
- Netflix is drastically better at producing successful content than Xbox.
- Netflix never had to spend $80B+ in acquisitions in the span of a few years.
- Gamepass was never the leading game subscription service on the market.
- Xbox was never able to show that they can charge considerably more than Netflix and still retain their subscribers.
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peter42O
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Spencer is the best person Microsoft has had since Peter Moore. Until late 2017, he's always been stuck "in line" behind others (mainly Mattrick and Myerson) and when you're simply following orders from those above you, it's either you leave or you wait it out which is what Phil did. Is Spencer perfect? Hell no but he's the guy I have the most confidence in since Moore.
Microsoft has improved dramatically in regards to releasing high quality games. For those unaware, via Open Critic, Microsoft has published 7 games with an average rating of 86.8 while Sony has published 10 games with an average rating of 82.5. This is from launch to date. Thus far, the quality has been there.
However, the quantity hasn't been there as 2 of those 7 games were Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo. While both aren't available on Xbox Series yet, they are both Microsoft published games. The biggest issues for Spencer is that first and foremost, he and Booty need to be more hands on. Once a game is green lit, they should be checking in with them every three months minimum for an update/status report. Next, he really needs to visit a few studios and see what the hell is happening at them. I sure as hell wouldn't be taking anyone's word for anything. I would have to see everything with my own eyes if I was Spencer.
Perhaps even more so is the fact that they don't learn from their past mistakes. At E3 2019, Microsoft said Halo Infinite would launch with their next generation console, Holiday 2020. A full 18 months out. That obviously didn't happen but what did they do yet again? They gave Starfield a date 18 months out. How did that work out? I know some will say it's Bethesda, blah, blah, blah but it's all under Microsoft. Microsoft needs to be overseeing what the hell is going on at all these studios including Bethesda. After that, they never had a backup or contingency plan in case things don't work out.
As an Xbox fan, it's very disappointing, aggravating and frustrating but at the same time, their future is the brightest it's ever been and when this generation ends, it should go down as the best for Microsoft and Xbox with the most released exclusives they've ever had and at the highest quality they've ever had.
Just like no one remembers the great second half of 2021 that Microsoft had, no one is going to remember that outside of two AA games, how empty 2022 was if 2023 ends up being on par with 2021 or better. Sadly, the worst part is probably the simple fact that as an Xbox fan, im still waiting to be blown away and get some exclusives that I actually want to play.
Microsoft has improved dramatically in regards to releasing high quality games. For those unaware, via Open Critic, Microsoft has published 7 games with an average rating of 86.8 while Sony has published 10 games with an average rating of 82.5. This is from launch to date. Thus far, the quality has been there.
However, the quantity hasn't been there as 2 of those 7 games were Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo. While both aren't available on Xbox Series yet, they are both Microsoft published games. The biggest issues for Spencer is that first and foremost, he and Booty need to be more hands on. Once a game is green lit, they should be checking in with them every three months minimum for an update/status report. Next, he really needs to visit a few studios and see what the hell is happening at them. I sure as hell wouldn't be taking anyone's word for anything. I would have to see everything with my own eyes if I was Spencer.
Perhaps even more so is the fact that they don't learn from their past mistakes. At E3 2019, Microsoft said Halo Infinite would launch with their next generation console, Holiday 2020. A full 18 months out. That obviously didn't happen but what did they do yet again? They gave Starfield a date 18 months out. How did that work out? I know some will say it's Bethesda, blah, blah, blah but it's all under Microsoft. Microsoft needs to be overseeing what the hell is going on at all these studios including Bethesda. After that, they never had a backup or contingency plan in case things don't work out.
As an Xbox fan, it's very disappointing, aggravating and frustrating but at the same time, their future is the brightest it's ever been and when this generation ends, it should go down as the best for Microsoft and Xbox with the most released exclusives they've ever had and at the highest quality they've ever had.
Just like no one remembers the great second half of 2021 that Microsoft had, no one is going to remember that outside of two AA games, how empty 2022 was if 2023 ends up being on par with 2021 or better. Sadly, the worst part is probably the simple fact that as an Xbox fan, im still waiting to be blown away and get some exclusives that I actually want to play.
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People might not remember how empty 2022 was but they'll remember how empty the last 20 years were for Xbox.
If they can't impress a hardcore Xbox fan how are they going to impress the average Joe Shmoe? The whole Gamepass angle is getting really old when it's having worse months than the competition half-assed new service and when the Series S is so outclassed by the PS5 DE.
PS5 DE ($399) + One year of PS+ Extra ($100) = $499
Series S ($299) + Play and Charge Kit ($29) + One Year of Gamepass Ultimate ($180) = $507
Series X ($499) + Play and Charge Kit ($29) + One Year of Gamepass Ultimate ($180) = $708
Storage expansion options:
1TB of Xbox proprietary storage ($205)
1TB much faster storage WD_BLACK 1TB SN850 ($138)
[All prices taken from Amazon.com]
The value proposition of MS right now for people into digital games/game services is offensive, regardless if the person wants to play on an ridiculous underpowered console or on a decent one. What a complete ripoff.
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You people will, we'll be playing games and this horse shit will be on replay rent free for you.
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peter42O
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The only problem is that the hardcore Xbox fans are the minority, not the vast majority which are the casuals. Look up Microsoft's showcase from a few weeks ago. It was overwhelmingly positive. 90%+ all A and B grades. For me, it was a C grade (6.0/10) as I got only 5 games out of 25. No new game reveals. All 5 were already previously announced.
Microsoft's direction with Game Pass isn't for the hardcore Xbox fans. It's to get the casuals into the platform and eco-system. I'm what you would consider a hardcore Xbox fan and they're doing nothing for me right now and after Halo Infinite last December, I don't know when im getting my next exclusive. But people I know, work with and talk to who are easily casuals are loving nearly everything that they're doing because overall, they don't care about if the games are exclusive or not.
Sure, we care but the casuals out there who are not on Twitter or forums don't give two shits. They have hundreds of games to choose from in Game Pass, get day one Indies, AA games and some AAA titles here and there at a cheap price. They're more than happy.
As for Series S, it's not for me. No interest in it but for those who want a secondary/complimentary console or if you're a parent with kids, it's a brilliant move. Add in the chip shortages and it becomes an even smarter decision. Series S spec wise isn't going to matter to those who have kids or for those in which it's secondary. They won't even give it a second thought.
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So they are casuals but they care about play games day one? Playing indies... hum something is that narrative.
The only advantage the Series S has is availability (because it's not in high demand), no sane properly informed person would pick a Series S over a PS5 or Series X. The $100 or $200 bucks that you are lead to believe you are saving are not worth it as I've proven in my previous post.
The Series S is not brilliant, it will go down as one of the worst consoles of all time, it's a complete embarrassment of a value proposition and is getting completely outclassed in every conceivable way.
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peter42O
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I didn't say they care about getting games day one. I'm just adding it in there. Most people aren't even aware of most if not all the day one games that go into the service or even older games that get added in. They simply see hundreds of games and they just start playing. I'm not even sure if they have a section for day one Game Pass games on the service as im not subscribed to it.
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My point is, how does Gamepass offer a better value proposition than PS+ Extra to a casual at this point? Casuals ain't going to care for 360 games, games that are too old, indies or the likes of Peppa Pig.
They'll also have a selection of hundreds of games on PS+ Extra (and included online play for their other games that they'll only get on Gamepass Ultimate) arguably much better games given how lackluster the Xbox games have being since forever.
Phil Spencer needs to be called out for all of this. Where are the Xbox fans to put pressure on this guy, where is the game media to call it how it is?
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You severely misjudge the consumer market, holy hell. People don't care about this asinine forum warrior nonsense, have some self awareness for crying out loud. Understand that we're an extremist fringe minority.
Also there is nothing wrong with the Series S, it plays every modern game, it's readily available and it's cheap. What a worthless post.
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