MS feels like they are ahead of Sony

[kitler53]

Maybe I just have way too much faith in starfield lol.

starfield or not,.. it's 6 months away on the heels of basically a year of nothing and what little xbox got was almost entirely due to zenimax aquisition.  

the criticism stands: xbox needs to get their shame together.

like seriously,.. can you imagine series XS first party if the zenimax acquisition was blocked?   spencer has been around far to long to have their entire 1st party in the form of publishers aquired during the generation itself and not get blasted for incompetence...

[Horizon]

The major problem Xbox has had is they only started reinvesting in the Xbox brand in 2018. When they started to acquire studios they didn't have much of a nucleus of studios to integrate into. Only RARE and Turn10 have been in the Xbox studio family since the original Xbox. 343 and the coalition are by all accounts relatively new studios. Playground are new too. They've acquired so many studios they're probably still integrating them along with handling Bethesda. They've acquired more studios in the past 5 years than Sony has for the past decade. You compare that to Sony who have the likes of Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Polyphony digital, Guerrilla,Insomniac etc have been with Sony since PS1/PS2. They're fully ingrained in the ethos of Playstation studios and been sharing knowledge and tech for over 2 decades. It's much easier for Sony to integrate studios as they have foundation of studios already working together.They're bound to have roadbumps because they're trying to compete with Sony and Nintendo who have been cultivating their first party for decades. We won't see the best of Xbox till next gen.

[Legend]

starfield or not,.. it's 6 months away on the heels of basically a year of nothing and what little xbox got was almost entirely due to zenimax aquisition.  

the criticism stands: xbox needs to get their shame together.

like seriously,.. can you imagine series XS first party if the zenimax acquisition was blocked?   spencer has been around far to long to have their entire 1st party in the form of publishers aquired during the generation itself and not get blasted for incompetence...

Xbox definitely needs to fix themselves. Late 2023 to late 2024 could be Xbox's best period of the gen if starfield+avowed+hellblade 2 release, but there's so little to look forward to after that.

[kitler53]

The major problem Xbox has had is they only started reinvesting in the Xbox brand in 2018. ...

i'll just stop you right there.   spencer took over in 2014 so why did it take him 4 years to figure out the very simple idea of "1st party games sell consoles"?

[the-pi-guy]

i'll just stop you right there.   spencer took over in 2014 so why did it take him 4 years to figure out the very simple idea of "1st party games sell consoles"?

It took 3 years for Phil to convince Nadella that Xbox was worth something.  

[kitler53]

It took 3 years for Phil to convince Nadella that Xbox was worth something. 

so basically he failed and failed and failed again for 2.75 years...


...and it's not like spencer was in charge of absolutely nothing during that period.   coalition, 343, rare, lionhead where all mismanaged during this period.  i can't even remember their names but a bunch of new studios were formed at the start of xbox one and basically all of them died within 2-3 years.

[the-pi-guy]

The major problem Xbox has had is they only started reinvesting in the Xbox brand in 2018. When they started to acquire studios they didn't have much of a nucleus of studios to integrate into. Only RARE and Turn10 have been in the Xbox studio family since the original Xbox. 343 and the coalition are by all accounts relatively new studios. Playground are new too. They've acquired so many studios they're probably still integrating them along with handling Bethesda. They've acquired more studios in the past 5 years than Sony has for the past decade. You compare that to Sony who have the likes of Naughty Dog, Santa Monica, Polyphony digital, Guerrilla,Insomniac etc have been with Sony since PS1/PS2. They're fully ingrained in the ethos of Playstation studios and been sharing knowledge and tech for over 2 decades. It's much easier for Sony to integrate studios as they have foundation of studios already working together.They're bound to have roadbumps because they're trying to compete with Sony and Nintendo who have been cultivating their first party for decades. We won't see the best of Xbox till next gen.

I think there are probably a lot of different factors at play.

- Sony acquired studios that they were already working closely with.
- A few of MS acquired studios that weren't pumping out games in the first place. Compulsion Games and Undead Labs were going 5 years without releasing a game.
- I recall there were a couple of studios having issues, and MS is apparently too hands off to fix the studio issues.
- this probably extends even worse to Bethesda. MS being overly hands off, Zenimax probably scrambling to put out games they really shouldn't.  
- 343 seems like they had too few managers working on too many things, and just not able to cope with their own projects.

[Horizon]

I think there are probably a lot of different factors at play.

- Sony acquired studios that they were already working closely with.
- A few of MS acquired studios that weren't pumping out games in the first place. Compulsion Games and Undead Labs were going 5 years without releasing a game.
- I recall there were a couple of studios having issues, and MS is apparently too hands off to fix the studio issues.
- this probably extends even worse to Bethesda. MS being overly hands off, Zenimax probably scrambling to put out games they really shouldn't.  
- 343 seems like they had too few managers working on too many things, and just not able to cope with their own projects.

We also must consider Bethesda were not exactly in a great place either. They did not purchase a publisher thriving they bought one who had a litany of flops and underperformers. Xbox has shown they're not great at nurturing their own studios so turn around the fortunes of a publisher is a monumental task. BGS and ID are the only studios I'd trust to deliver without managing them. The rest all need oversight and guidance.

[kitler53]

We also must consider Bethesda were not exactly in a great place either. They did not purchase a publisher thriving they bought one who had a litany of flops and underperformers. Xbox has shown they're not great at nurturing their own studios so turn around the fortunes of a publisher is a monumental task. BGS and ID are the only studios I'd trust to deliver without managing them. The rest all need oversight and guidance.

bethesda wasn't in that bad of a place.   fallout 76 didn't go well for them but they were far from going bankrupt.  they didn't need MS to buy them to keep going.

[Horizon]

bethesda wasn't in that bad of a place.   fallout 76 didn't go well for them but they were far from going bankrupt.  they didn't need MS to buy them to keep going.

Their last major success was Fallout 4 in 2015. I think they were in much more financial difficulty than people were aware because they're not public.

[the-pi-guy]

Their last major success was Fallout 4 in 2015. I think they were in much more financial difficulty than people were aware because they're not public.

Doom Eternal was a decent success in 2020

>Doom Eternal has made over $450 million in profit in less than a year since its launch

I'm pretty sure TESO has relatively consistently printed money.

[kitler53]

Doom Eternal was a decent success in 2020

>Doom Eternal has made over $450 million in profit in less than a year since its launch

I'm pretty sure TESO has relatively consistently printed money.

Pi, you're such a great guy at making my arguments for me.  xD

[the-pi-guy]

Where are the vibes at?

Feels to me like MS over promised and has yet to deliver a lot.
Whereas Sony has under promised and delivered pretty well.

[Legend]

Just for my own interests and tastes, I have so little hype. Nothing announced by Sony or MS looks good enough for me to care at this point. Was really hyped for Avowed but the last trailer completely turned me off.

Unannounced games? MS has a ton of potential but such a bad track record. I want to see what some studios are working on but I have no clue which games if any will actually be great. Sony side I have a lot more hype since Naughty Dog, Guerilla, and Santa Monica are incredible. Pretty confident that I'll love whatever they put out next. Insomniac is great too but I don't know if they'll have more side projects I can get hyped for or if the full studio is hunkered down on Wolverine now.

[Horizon]

Just for my own interests and tastes, I have so little hype. Nothing announced by Sony or MS looks good enough for me to care at this point. Was really hyped for Avowed but the last trailer completely turned me off.

Unannounced games? MS has a ton of potential but such a bad track record. I want to see what some studios are working on but I have no clue which games if any will actually be great. Sony side I have a lot more hype since Naughty Dog, Guerilla, and Santa Monica are incredible. Pretty confident that I'll love whatever they put out next. Insomniac is great too but I don't know if they'll have more side projects I can get hyped for or if the full studio is hunkered down on Wolverine now.

I think you nailed it. Xbox has too many studios where the quality is just unknown. My next most anticipated game is Fable but I wonder if the gameplay shown was gameplay. Can Playground deliver in a completely untested genre and IP. Lots of people were excited for Avowed but then they showed the gamplay and so many were underwhelmed.