The problem at this point is not so much that they don’t have games - they have released plenty in the past few years and most have been received positively.
The problem is that they released those games too late, and by that point, the ship had already sailed. After a streak of disappointing years with the XOne, they needed strong titles to pair up with XSeries. Instead, they released jack shit for an entire year, and after that the disappointment just grew further with the likes of Halo Infinite, Starfield and the weird vampire game nobody asked for.
By that point, everyone already got themselves a PS5, a Switch, a gaming PC or a handheld device. Xbox needed to show their fans they believed in their mission and were capable of delivering strong titles on their platform, but everyone saw their releases and said “Meh”.
The strong titles eventually came, but by that point they had already decided to port them over to the competition to offset the cost, and everyone saw the writing was on the wall for the platform.
Spencer can go on stage spewing whatever bullshit he wants, but nobody outside of the most diehard Xbox fans believe that the platform has a future - and it’s very hard to convince people to invest on your platform when it’s not certain how many more years it will be supported, and whether your store will remain accessible or shut down a few years down the line.
I know people hate the idea of console exclusivity, but without it, that’s what really killed the Xbox for me. I’ve got a gaming PC and a PS5 (not Pro), and I could afford an Xbox Series X if I really wanted to. I simply don’t know of any games on the platform that I want and can’t get somewhere else.
And that’s not coming from a reflexive Microsoft hater. I had an OG Xbox (and loved the old Duke controller), 360, and One S. I just barely played the latter.
It’s too expensive to make those kinds of exclusives anymore, which means they take longer to make, which means there are fewer of them. Sony can’t make enough PlayStation exclusives to justify me buying a PlayStation anymore, so I don’t buy one, so they put them on PC too, so there’s even less reason for me to have a PlayStation. Console exclusives are on their way out of fashion.
It doesn't help that the One S is an underpowered cheapo console, but that MS demands that all Xbox games must run on the One S with a pretty high FPS. You had major developers delaying or cancelling their Xbox release because they couldn't get it to work on the One S.
"And here's the thing — maybe it will work," she added. "Xbox has a deep portfolio. [Oblivion Remastered] was obviously a huge success, and they can continue to outsource that work to external companies and make a lot of money releasing their older games — older games from an era when Xbox knew how to build them."
Shots fired. Despite Microsoft constantly claiming Xbox is here to stay and they're working on the next console, it's very clear they're trying to transition off hardware back into Windows so they don't lose that too since Linux is dominating the handheld market. Even if they do make a new console, theyll put as much effort into it as the Xbox One.
the xbone was the last console I bought. Soured the pot so bad on what I enjoyed about console gaming. I already had a PC, but still enjoyed the couch casual sessions that seemingly don’t exist, and haven’t for over a decade
I’ve just had my gaming PC hooked up to my living room TV for the last several years. I have a lower power desktop on my room for anything that isn’t gaming. I can’t imagine buying one of the modern consoles just for their limitations alone.
Plus I just wait a few years and 95% of the explained make their way to PC anyway.
Microsoft is trying to make Xbox into Windows: Where 3rd parties make the hardware and then license the platform from Microsoft. It’s a vastly more profitable model. Especially if they get all those end users signed up for a subscription service.
The problem is that the world thinks of “Xbox” as a console (and a specific kind of controller). To pull this off Microsoft is going to have to re-brand Xbox entirely by making people think of it more like a game-specific app store that runs on Windows and special handheld hardware. It won’t be easy.
There’s a bigger problem with this plan though: No real coordination with the Windows OS team. Windows on handhelds sucks. The past twenty fucking years of Windows development has been almost entirely focused on improving enterprise features with very little attention paid to end users or gaming.
Growth in Windows gaming has come despite Microsoft’s investments. Not because of them. In fact, I’d argue that if it weren’t for Steam, Windows—as a gaming platform—would be a fraction of what it is today.
Don’t get me wrong, though! I love this new Xbox roadmap! Windows gaming has been holding back Linux desktop adoption for far too long. The latest benchmarks that show games on SteamOS vastly outperforming the new Xbox-branded handhelds pretty clearly demonstrates all that bashing of Windows by Linux nerds was deeply accurate.
It turns out that Linux on the desktop really is superior! 🤣
So basically they’re trying to do what Trip Hawkins did with the 3DO in 1993. In order for that to work, you’re going to have to convince people to pay PC hardware prices first. Two issues:
Third party manufacturers aren’t going to sell at a loss,
Sony will continue to sell their consoles at a loss, which means everyone will just buy their consoles instead.
The first, dominant element of the two marks, NAUGHTY, is identical,” Sony said. “The second elements, DOG and CAT, are highly similar in that both refer to house pets
That has to be the most flimsy lawsuit I’ve ever heard. Any lawyer that can win with that case is a freaking genius.
This is a trademark dispute. This is why it's filled with the USPTO as opposed to a court case. Bar for this is way, way lower. Sony has an incredibly good chance to prevail. Sony winning here at the USPTO would deny a trademark for Naughty Cat. But if there is a decent rebuttal from the studio, it may have to go to court to be settled.
That said, Naughty Cat is likely doing exactly what Sony details in their complaint. As the publisher's works are mostly cheap slot machine themed games.
Naughty Cat only has two apps listed on the App Store, and both are gambling games that promise real cash rewards.
It's very likely this is one of those cheap Chinese drive by studios and it pinged on Sony's radar a lot earlier than the studio thought it would.
But motions of opposition are not the same as a full blown suit in Court. So Sony does have an incredibly good chance to have their trademark invalided.
God, why is the games industry so fucking illiterate when it comes to IP law. File a trademark opposition? They’re suing! File a patent application without issued claims or even substantive examination? They’ve patented it! These aren’t crazy fucking complicated concepts, but the journalism for games industries like actively stunts the understanding of these things by the market.
Sources from Build a Rocket Boy, developer of MindsEye, say the studio has begun layoffs amid a disastrous launch.
This might hurt every English teacher I ever had, but maybe title format should stop applying to article titles. Unnecessary capitalization hurts legibility.
Not that it would necessarily solve the wording issue, though, as I’m sure the data people for news publishers have some stats showing they get more engagement when the title is front loaded with more keywords, or something to that effect.
Old title format is sensible for the limited space of newspapers. We don’t need it to be quite as concise as it used to be with current digital formats.
Co-CEO Mark Gerhard had hit the headlines ahead of MindsEye’s launch for claiming there was a “concerted effort” by some to “trash the game and the studio,” suggesting people were being paid or using spam bots to post negative comments.
The people who made the decisions which led them to this troubled state do not understand or accept that they are the reason hundreds are going to lose their jobs. “Paid actors” seems to be the big push back against criticism but no one knows how much these jobs pay or where to find one. I want to make some money for not buying crap!
I am seeing more and more of these “review bomb” takes lately, too. Dragon Age Veilguard getting review bombed because their game is too woke. Moon Studios saying they might have to close because trolls are review bombing their new game. Monster Hunter Wilds being review bombed on Steam because entitled PC gamers expect their games to be stable, I guess.
Too many people out there are deflecting legitimate criticism in favor of what are basically conspiracy theories—that there must be a concerted effort to specifically punish these developers in particular for the crime of releasing a misunderstood masterpiece. No one wants to accept the possibility that they just put out a bad game.
I mean, I’m sure these jobs exist, social media manipulation is neither new or difficult. They’re probably outsourced to India or somewhere though.
But it’s a bit of a pathetic excuse for bad managers to use to cover their failing. I think they should have some sort of evidence before they start squawking about it.
Outsourcing is such a pre-AI mentality. Why have foreign loose ends that don’t speak the language well and give off amateurish vibes when a few computers and some AI credits will do it faster, better, and cheaper?
It’s even more funny, or sad really, given that most of these studios are paying people to promote these games, without any of the legally required disclosures of course.
Those incongruously positive opinions disappearing after a few days is totally normal and definitely not because they were only being paid for a 1 week window around the launch of the game.
I don’t get why they write an article and then play a Mario kart ad over half my screen. I’m not clicking to close their ads I’m clicking back to leave the site.
Just wanted to know if the lead designers, project managers, etc. were being fired or if it’s just the people who carry out their visions being axed. I can guess the answer though.
No info on that, but apparently firing over a 100 people (out of 300 or so people)
One person, who asked to remain anonymous in order to protect their career, told IGN there’s no word yet on exactly how many staff are affected, but the standard 45-day consultation process starts today, June 23, which according to UK law is triggered when an employer proposes 100 or more redundancies within a 90-day period. IGN understands Build A Rocket Boy currently has around 300 UK employees, with around 200 abroad.
I don’t think this can be salvaged at this point. Original Marathon fans don’t like that it doesn’t stay true to the source material. Everyone is mad about the plagiarism. Bungies track record is kinda shot after Destiny 2. I think the only people they could attempt to appeal to are hardcore destiny 2 fans.
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