They always try to pretend like running a videogame company is difficult. Let’s be honest it would be really easy for most of us considering the IP Xbox owns.
Sarcasm? My detector is always off on days like today
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Serious
Spoken like someone without an inkling of knowledge in either game development, or running a multi-billion dollar organization within one of the largest companies on the planet…
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I do not, in any way shape or form, think it would be easy to run a videogame company.
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Everwild IP should have been scrapped after success of Grounded and Palworld and project retrofitted as an early access Viva Pinata game - with gameplay split between building your own pinata garden and exploring standalone wilderness biomes to discover new Pinatas, fight off ruffians, and gather building resources - In Solo or Coop. Could even have rescue & sanctuary angle.
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Well dealing with “Microsoft “ would be the difficult part. But running the Xbox part sounds fun and easy. Why layoff Turn 10? Make a new game with those people, form a 2nd Forza Horizon studio with those workers. Easy
Go outside and take a deep breath of fresh air, we don’t need this kind of low-effort comments here. Especially not now.
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See I can definitely understand how difficult it is - I lead big development projects regularly and scope creep, unclear goals from stakeholders (or poorly defined requirements) and difficulty getting things to gel (and team members to) all can make it difficult - plus maintaining a tight delivery by making difficult decisions what to drop or change.
And that’s on stuff way smaller than a AAA game with smaller teams to handle.
So I can definitely see that sometimes you just have to ditch something and go a different way - equally, we may think we know what IPs will sell but I can’t find anyone under 30 in my friends and family who know what Perfect Dark was for example.
Old IPs are great for us older gamers and people who play older games, but the vast majority of the market know nothing other than Fortnite, CoD and GTA so even established IP can be risky
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Loved Viva Pinata lol
Honestly, I would say if it wasn’t for PD, I would understand a lot about the choices they made here. The only reason PD stands out is that we saw the game reveal last year. Everwild only displayed dare I say a concept display, like an engine demo. Because of that, it left me perplexed. Layoff is unfortunately business as usual.
Now for those who are really believing on Xbox has no games, we literally have 4 games next year and even the mightiest axe won’t touch them. One is an icon, the other is the returning icon, the other is the biggest money maker, and the last one is made by the money maker creators. Maybe if this was Xbox before Bethesda, you can argue with that, but now, they are far more. So in gaming delivery, we’re good. It’s just the ones that give/gave us those are the one to pay the price.
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I mean, I can theory craft and call out IP I would like to see come back. But that doesnt magically turn into a video game. But I will happily keep yelling BRING BACK HEXEN into the void.
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Not at all. I said similar things in other threads. Xbox didn’t green light Fallout immediately when acquired Bethesda. That was a layup. Come on I’m not calling myself a genius for thinking it, its basic common sense.
Sure, but that is vastly different than “running a videogame business”. It literally ignores an entire ocean of important details. Lol.
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Acknowledging these are people and their livelihoods:
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Turn10 checks out and you have to question the value of Motorsport in a non-exclusive world.
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Perfect Dark hurts but checks out. That studio never got it together and Booty arguably should have pulled the plug prior to its gameplay reveal.
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Everwild checks out. It’s been MIA for half of a decade and was never more than a cool, intangible trailer.
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ZeniMax Online I have no opinion on.
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The skills to make open world games great can be quite different to a closed circuit racer, in particular around optimisation.
It’d be a steep learning curve, but yes not impossible, but they also need to deliver the DLC and cars etc to Motorsport that people have already paid for
Yeah but in terms of closing down studios, I can almost always find ways to pivot and put those studios on other IP. Why close Tango? Hi-Fi Rush team would’ve made an awesome Guitar Hero for the new generation. Why no Crash Bandicoot kart racer? Where is simpsons hit and run?
If you work at least once with a team of people, you know how difficult it is to coordinate and make anything together.
I know someone who worked on games, in an indie studio that grew bigger, and what he told me is that it’s really hard to manage game projects. There’s always some senior dev who is pretty bad at his job while other talented devs have to do what they are told and can’t really have their say.
I don’t blame the studios that got their projects cut but higher-ups who lied and try to make things work until MS and execs saw how bad it was. And I would not want to be the person in those meetings announcing the bad news…
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Exactly. A small handful of people are all nostalgic about Perfect Dark. But in the general gaming population, that name alone has absolutely no meaning. Same for people calling for a Banjo-Kazooie reboot, thinking it’d be a guaranteed success. No… it probably wouldn’t.
That’s the problem with people living in this gaming bubble. They think they know everything better than the evil corporations “ruining” their hobby. But they’ve lost all objectivity.
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Perfect Dark should’ve been turned into a 007 game. Xbox owns both Activision and Rare. Perfect Dark is closely associated with Goldeneye 64. Once the big wigs started to get nervous about the viability of the IP it could’ve been fixed by doing this. I/Os 007 reveal landed with a thud. Crystal Dynamics Should’ve been acquired by Xbox. Xbox is known for FPS games and 007 could’ve been an additional pillar. The pivot makes perfect sense to me…Much better than canceling the game.