Budget, Performance & Delays: Why PlayStation Dropped Kojima

Yeah, a bubble of really loud people that permeates into the mainstream often.

Occasionally, on really big stories like 1600 people fired at once. If they do a huge number at once again then sure.

Did sony not take basic business courses. Don’t burn your bridges.

I think the report did more harm than good for Sony. People either don’t believe it or can’t make sense of the past actions in compare to now. Hell, IGN is doing what they did with Xbox back like last year or two. The whole “The future is doomsday” discussion but now with PS.

Also, it’s silly to think people are hating on Wolverine because of what’s happening. Pretty sure there are valid criticisms that rub them the wrong way. Still, you got to decide yourself.

I wouldn’t call Gears E Day a test. I think people are referring to something new and fresh that is all her. I would say this is the first W for her in my opinion assuming it all goes well and we don’t see them cutting ties later on. Even with this I still wonder if it will be on Gamepass day one as the service has gone down under her.

For me, yes but I’m a SEGA man & one of those who saw the OG Xbox as the Dreamcast 2

I’m not a fan of Kojima-san & while it’s great to get one over SONY, how much is this costing? When XBOX is dropping Project Fantasy or Project Blackbird over money, but can find millions for Kojima

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It shouldn’t be, given that Xbox already accepted that both Gears & CR probably won’t move the needle, in part due to the return to exclusivity.

Personally, I think her biggest test, is whether she makes Fallout & TES exclusive.

I feel that FH6 gave them a feeling of exclusivity effective. The fact they are about to delay PS5 officially knowing the game can be ported this year is telling.

The problem with exclusivity is that for it to move the needle you don’t just make a game exclusive, that’s just one part of a marketing push, alongside actually making consoles available across the world and having price cuts, deals and so on. This is why I can never be sure about their view on exclusivity, which at least for now feels more about keeping their current audience than actually gain new users.

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I’m sorry Xbox doesn’t run their decisions by your personal taste? They don’t for me either and yeah it sucks. If they let me specifically vote & have the final say on whether they fund this project or keep on Double Fine or Compulsion or Tango or Contraband or not gut id or let IO finish their project with Xbox funding or ZOS finish their new MMO then yeah, I’d have chosen the latter. None of these decisions are made like that or even mutually exclusive though. As for the money question, unfortunately Xbox doesn’t give us financial details, but like you said they’re stripped for cash recently. Microsoft is supporting them less as costs continue to rise significantly. I don’t think they’d have even been able to take on a large financial burden. And after all the constant, constant talk about Xbox having poor financials from Sharma I don’t think she’d make this decision lightly. They aren’t funding this project from scratch which is probably what allowed them to pick it up in the first place. For whatever reason this project fits both under Xbox’s new strategy and their financial constraints, and that’s good. That doesn’t change how bad it is that they canceled XYZ or how good it would be if they also funded something from ABC. Again these decisions just aren’t mutually exclusive. If they didn’t pick up Kojima’s project it’s not like they’d get a time machine and uncancel any of the projects you or I would have preferred. I also don’t suspect they made a financial decision that will negatively impact them. If they did then we’ll see a post about them apologizing and dropping Kojima. Neither one of us know Xbox’s actual day to day financials or what truly goes into making these decisions.

I’m lost on what the “test” even is? Surely, it’d be about the success of the platform. The decision to make games exclusive or not wouldn’t be that, but the overall health of the Xbox ecosystem. It’s not really something a single moment decides. Her test is her entire tenure and we’ll constantly see the results throughout and those results will constantly change our response to her.

Regardless, Sharma and her team have already given numerous statements on exclusivity which basically boils down to, “It’s still case by case but this time don’t be mad at us.” They can’t even commit to only multiplayer/live service games. I think Fallout and Elder Scrolls are easily in their single player games that won’t be exclusive bucket. They’re just too big and have too big of a built up fanbase on all platforms. Fallout especially with the TV show. Realistically there just wouldn’t be enough gamers who would switch platforms to even make up for the loss of not maximizing the marketing budget with a simultaneous release, which is at most what they’d do. The biggest thing is exclusives only remotely work if people actually believe they won’t ship on the other platform ever. There’s no amount of statements Xbox could give that would actually convince the average gamer (who wouldn’t even encounter those statements) that either game is a permanent exclusive. In terms of exclusives Xbox really would’ve needed to have made every new release (including the remasters and probably even COD (though they could get away with saying the courts made them make that multiplat)) only on Xbox & PC (if they hadn’t already started Steam only on Xbox & Xbox on PC would’ve been best) for this entire generation & the first two years of the next generation for it to really have an impact in converting PS gamers to Xbox. That’s not a loss of sales Microsoft is willing to subsidize though and everyone knew it. At this point exclusives really aren’t going to make people jump ship. Their best bet is Sony themselves making PS undesirable, but even then with the cost of production Xbox is already struggling to make enough hardware to meet demand due to Microsoft’s need to run lean coupled with the shortages caused by AI. That’s also created another issue where it’s profoundly more expensive to switch platforms than ever before. I’d be very surprised I’ll say. There’s a lot more reasons not to make it exclusive than there would be to.

It’s to back up her words on making the platform competitive and desirable. Those titles will help in ways that the likes or Gears & CR just can’t. We’ve seen them release some very good titles over the years, and yet they just don’t move the needle whatsoever. At some point they’re gonna have to take a leap of faith with their biggest IP’s and see if it works or not.

“Taking a leap of faith” feels like the opposite of Microsoft & Xbox’s stance right now. But yeah making the platform competitive & desirable is a very broad statement that refers to a whole host of things. I’d easily say that bringing the price down and having something in place to make next gen accessible is more important than anything right now in terms of having a competitive and desirable platform.

Their overall stance, yes, but as the Kojima news has shown, they are ready to seize upon a good, albeit risky, opportunity when it arises. There’s no guarantee he’ll produce greatness, or that the other media he has planned for Physint will pan out, but there’s a good chance it might.

And look at the reactions! Gaming media personalities spiralling out, reported on by the BBC, Sony fans arguing amongst themselves. Usually it’s been because of bad Xbox news, but this time it’s in their favour, and they absolutely should follow that up with a left hook, uppercut combo of making the likes of Fallout & TES exclusive imo.

I’d be surprised but regardless both games are still a couple of years out. Fallout 5 is more than a couple of years out. Even if they were to make both exclusive that wouldn’t really be a follow up to this unless they went dead silent for the next year or two and then went dead silent again for the next four years after that :sweat_smile:.

Well, context is key. What other announcements do you think would generate the headlines/reactions we’ve seen this week?

The announcement of their exclusivity also doesn’t have to wait until the games are literally coming out, it can come ahead of time in any showcase where we see a reveal trailer for Fallout, or a gamplay reveal for TES.

I don’t expect them too & I get why Tango Works was shut down/sold off - None of their games sold well & no doubt Mikami-san took all the best staff with him & while I like Double Fine, their games are too niche & making games in California is said to be really expensive

I just don’t like how XBOX can find millions to get one over SONY, but drops projects like Project Blackbird over budget worries & I also find Kojima-san very overrated

Off the top of my head an actual real announcement for next gen/Helix consoles & it would generate insane hype if it did actually pulled off full access to console & PC and just had a SKU priced under $800. Or if they could just undercut whatever Sony announces their console to be priced at. I’m just saying not everything revolves around exclusivity and even if it did there’s more than those two games without a release date. No one would believe Xbox if they announced either game as exclusive before we’ve even seen gameplay from them or have an official release window. Xbox themselves wouldn’t even believe that. It’d just take one more economic downturn for them to reverse ship yet again on every decision they’ve made.

Yes, but that’s a big if on what the PC part will consist of, as well as undercutting Sony on price. If it’s just PC games from the Windows Store, well, that’d be a damp squib.

As for nobody believing them if they announced exclusivity without seeing gameplay, I don’t see why not? In any case, TES at least sounds like it will be ready to shown off in the near future (2027) going by Asha’s recent viewing of it.

Maybe there’ll be some economic factors that ultimately shape their decision, but Xbox, PC, and Switch 2 should be more than enough for both IPs, especially as PC has typically been the platform they sell most on.