Xbox | Zenimax Development Studios + Activision?

Started by the-pi-guy, Mar 31, 2020, 12:51 AM

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the-pi-guy

Mar 31, 2020, 12:51 AM Last Edit: May 03, 2023, 06:49 PM by the-pi-guy


The current status of the studios:

343 Industries
CDHalo Infinite (2021)
CA
PDHalo 5 (2015)
PAHalo Wars 2 (2017)
Halo Fireteam (2018)
Halo Recruit (2017)
Compulsion Games
CD
CA
PDWe Happy Few (2018)
Contrast (2013)
PA
Double Fine
CD
CA
PDPsychonauts 2 (2020)
Rad (2019)
Full Throttle Remastered (2017)
PA
InXile Entertainment
CD
CA
PDWasteland 3 (2020)
The Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep (2018)
The Mage's Tale (2017)
PA
The Coalition
CD
CA
PDGears of War 4 (2016)
Gears 5 (2019)
PAGears Tactics (2020)
The Initiative
CDPerfect Dark (TBA)
CA
PD
PA
Mojang Studios
CD
CA
PDMinecraft (2011)
PA
Ninja Theory
CDHellblade 2 (TBA)
CA
PDBleeding Edge (2020)
Star Wars VR (2019)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (2017)
PA
Obsidian
CDAvowed (TBA)
CA
PDGrounded (2020)
The Outer Worlds (2019)
Pillars of Eternity II (2018)
Tyranny (2016)
PA
Playground Games
CDFable (TBA)
CA
PDForza Horizon (2012)
Forza Horizon 2 (2014)
Forza Horizon 3 (2016)
Forza Horizon 4 (2018)
PA
Rare
CDEverwild (TBA)
CA
PDBattletoads (2020)
Rare Replay (2015)
PA
Turn 10
CDForza TBA (TBA)
CA
PDForza 6 (2015)
Forza 7 (2017)
PA
Undead Labs
CDState of Decay 3 (TBA)
CA
PDState of Decay (2013)
State of Decay 2 (2018)
PA
Arkane Studios
CD
CA
PDWolfenstein: Cyberpilot (2019)
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (2019)
Prey (2017)
Dishonored 2 (2016)
PA
Bethesda Game Studios
CDStarfield (TBA)
CA
PDFallout 76 (2018)
Fallout 4 VR (2017)
TES: Skyrim VR (2017)
TES: Skyrim Special Edition (2016)
PA
id Software
CD
CA
PDQuake Champions (2018)
Rage 2 (2019)
Doom (2016)
PA
MachineGames
CDWolfenstein III (TBA)
CA
PDWolfenstein: Cyberpilot (2019)
Wolfenstein: Youngblood (2019)
Wolfenstein II (2017)
PA
Tango Gameworks
CD
CA
PDThe Evil Within 2 (2017)
The Evil Within (2014)
PA
ZeniMax Online Studios
CD
CA
PDTES: Online (2014)
PA

This new format should work a lot better because it actually has a pretty clear meaning. 

Not to mention the formatting is quite a bit nicer and even allows for a lot more information. 

CD = current development title: title that is predominantly being developed by this studio.
CA = current assist title: title that is predominantly being developed by another studio. 
PD= previous development title
PA = previous assist title

Xbox Game Shows

the-pi-guy

I just lazily got the information from wiki.  
Some didn't have a page so they have very incomplete information.  

I probably shouldn't have included all the assisted titles since most don't have any, but I figured it was easier to have a template that includes it than try adding in for specific ones.  

Overall MS is at a pretty decent spot.  
Strong points:
Double Fine, Rare, Obsidian, inXile Entertainment, Ninja Theory are pretty big.

Weak points:
Turn 10 and Playground together means that 2 of MS's studios are just dedicated to Forza.  
Not bad per se, but Undead Labs and Compulsion games are pretty small.

Expected points:
Coalition, 343 are decent, but they are pretty much dedicated studios to specific games.

Unexpected points:
World's Edge and the Initiative are completely new and it's hard to say how much they'll do.    
Some studios are new and don't have a lot of information on them.  



Legend

Obsidian are I think the only ones I'm personally excited for. Others are still on my radar but in a more general sense.

Did We Happy Few ever turn around? It had great trailers and world design but I remember early impressions being pretty negative.

kitler53

Mar 31, 2020, 09:58 PM Last Edit: Mar 31, 2020, 10:07 PM by kitler53
Obsidian are I think the only ones I'm personally excited for. Others are still on my radar but in a more general sense.

Did We Happy Few ever turn around? It had great trailers and world design but I remember early impressions being pretty negative.
67, 64, and 62 on metacritic across ps4, xbox, and pc. 

user reviews rated it even worse.


obsidian are clearly the biggest purchase in terms of potetial to create a game with a large market impact.  i generally liked games from double fine as well even if they are generally smaller.


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

the-pi-guy

Rumor: 343i struggled with Halo Infinite development, rebooted project in 2018 | ResetEra

Quote
I say rumor because there's no article about it, but rather this is based on insights from another Era member who has been vetted.

Quote
tusharngf said:    They were struggling with halo infy developement. 2018 they rebooted the project based on the feedback. Now it's all good.  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
This user knows their Microsoft stuff, and has been deemed reliable by Transistor and the mod team:

Quote
Transistor said:    We've verified this user's info to be reliable on the subject  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Pretty interesting takeaway imo. Thoughts?

 EDIT: As we know already, the creative director left 343i back in 2019, as reported by Jason Schreier, so the timing does make sense.
https://kotaku.com/halo-infinite-creative-director-leaves-company-1837312778  
[/size]

As stupid as it is, it's kind of nice to have a good place to put this.

Horizon

Everyone seems to think the initiative games is working on a Perfect Dark game.

Legend

May 03, 2020, 08:05 PM Last Edit: May 03, 2020, 08:12 PM by Legend
Everyone seems to think the initiative games is working on a Perfect Dark game.
That would be cool. I never played it and know nothing about it, but it seems like a fan favorite.

Rumor: 343i struggled with Halo Infinite development, rebooted project in 2018 | ResetEra
This user knows their Microsoft stuff, and has been deemed reliable by Transistor and the mod team:
Pretty interesting takeaway imo. Thoughts?

 EDIT: As we know already, the creative director left 343i back in 2019, as reported by Jason Schreier, so the timing does make sense.
https://kotaku.com/halo-infinite-creative-director-leaves-company-1837312778  


As stupid as it is, it's kind of nice to have a good place to put this.
Yeah mega threads are great ways to keep news from getting lost. Great job.

Reboot's can come in all different shapes and sizes. Wonder how much was changed.

the-pi-guy

How Minecraft and Mojang taught Xbox how to buy studios - Gamesindustry.biz | ResetEra

Quote
www.gamesindustry.biz   How Minecraft and Mojang taught Xbox how to buy studios  Xbox's new studios: Things have been almost exactly the same, just without the terror of going out of business   www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz    
Quote
Compulsion Games, Double Fine, InXile, Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Playground Games and Undead Labs had all joined the Microsoft family, and the news was greeted by whoops from the Xbox faithful and intrigued eyebrow raising from us in the business press.

 Yet among that excitement was an air of caution, too. Buying companies is easy, but integrating them is incredibly hard, and Microsoft is no stranger to acquisitions gone wrong.  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Mojang:
Quote
Mojang studio head Helen Chiang continues: "The approach we took to the acquisition came from Matt. A lot of times you see big companies buy smaller companies, and it's easy to lose the magic of what you've purchased. It was really important that this acquisition was about retaining all of that great talent within the studio, and ensuring that you're continuing to foster that creative spirit. It's not all about business results; it is about building a foundation of trust. As you can imagine, there was quite a gap in the culture between an indie studio and a large corporate company like Microsoft. It was about making sure they trusted that the leaders were not going to do harmful things to Minecraft."
 (...) Before, Microsoft acquired companies in a specific way. And this not only set the foundation for additional game studios, but when you look at LinkedIn and GitHub, they also have this minimally integrated approach. That really was something that Mojang set the foundation for."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Double Fine:
Quote
"Things have been almost exactly the same, just without the terror of going out of business all the time," (...) Being able to apply it to games and creativity has been an adjustment, but a really great adjustment."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Quote
"With Psychonauts 2, we could see the end of our budget coming up, and so we had cut a lot of stuff," Schafer explains. "We had cut our boss fights. Now we are able to put those back in, and we're like 'we think people would have noticed if we didn't have those boss fights'. Being able to complete the game in the way that it was meant to be was very important.  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Quote
"With Game Pass, it wouldn't make sense to acquire Double Fine and then assign us a bunch of Forza DLC. That's not what you'd want from a studio like Double Fine. And Game Pass seems like a great opportunity to have a diversity of games, a plethora of unusual content... I can see how the type of games that Double Fine makes could fit into that."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Obsidian:
Quote
"The only really different aspect of my day-to-day is not having to be the guy getting the money from the publishers. That has also changed how we approach development. A lot of times as an independent, how you develop games is dictated by the partner, because it's their money and they have a way they want you to make a game. It's been cool to apply those years of experience, and say 'hey, we can make the games the way we want to make them'."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Quote
"This idea of the limited integration studio was the best idea. Maybe it was intended or unintended, but by letting us be who we are, we then have a positive effect on Microsoft."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
InXile:
Quote
"I prepared the whole thing, I sat with Matt and said here is what we want to do, and he said 'if that's what you want to do, then great'. It was over in like 60 seconds. That was wild for me, because we're used to this six month process of back-and-forth with a million questions -- with things like 'how many pieces of art will there be?'  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
Spencer on future acquisitions:
Quote
A lot of the business is doing really well, so we're always in the market for new opportunities with studios.

 "The first priority was making sure the studios had the things that they needed to build the best versions of their games. That means extending some of the timelines, and giving them more budgets. We have really strong support from Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, and Amy Hood, the CFO. And there's been no signal at all that we should be slowing down, but just to go at a pace that is maintainable for us as a leadership team. We're always out there talking to people. But it has to be the right opportunity."  Click to expand... Click to shrink...  
A lot more at the link  
[/size]

the-pi-guy

Kind of a disappointing update tbh.

Xevross

Kind of a disappointing update tbh.
Although its good to see they seem to be taking Sony's approach to their own studios now. Just let them be creative and do what they want and they'll hopefully grow and get better and better. Its the kind of approach that won't pay dividens for a while though, which is why I think this showcase was disappointing from them. Perhaps mid gen it'll be starting to look a lot better.

the-pi-guy

Kind of a disappointing update tbh.
Big update coming up!  
I might wait a bit...

kitler53

someone needs to tweet at trump to block the sale...


Featured Artist: Vanessa Hudgens

Legend

Top 5 xbox studios:

Bethesda
Id Software
Arkane
Playground
Obsidian

All joined Microsoft in the last 3 years.

Xevross

Sep 22, 2020, 12:01 AM Last Edit: Sep 22, 2020, 12:03 AM by Xevross
Top 5 xbox studios:

Bethesda
Id Software
Arkane
Playground
Obsidian

All joined Microsoft in the last 3 years.
That's quite an amazing list of studios. There's some others that are very high quality as well: inXile, The Coalition, Turn10, Ninja Theory (maybe 343).

What would be Sony's top list?

Naughty Dog
Santa Monica
Guerrilla
Insomniac

I would say those are the clear top 4. You'd probably also list Polyphony, Sucker Punch, San Diego, Media Molecule as being very high quality too.

Naughty Dog and Santa Monica are above anything xbox have but after that xbox now have a lot more very good studios.

the-pi-guy

Feb 10, 2021, 05:59 PM Last Edit: Feb 10, 2021, 06:08 PM by the-pi-guy
This needs some updating.

And probably should start working on putting together Bethesda, as that will likely be official next month.

Alpha Dog Games
Arkane Studios
Bethesda Softworks
id Software
MachineGames
Roundhouse Studios
Tango Gameworks
ZeniMax Online Studios

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