Now let’s all pretend that MS and Phil aren’t buying up publishers to have another monopoly full of Xbox/PC exclusives. Tbf though, I think Sony started this whole exclusives thing and really pushed hard for it. They do, however, seem to be relenting now by publishing their games to steam.
Sony buys up studios for their talent not their IP. Bungie/Destiny is the only exception. They have a strong history of empowering their developers to release better games than they did before.
Microsoft is the opposite. They buy up studios / IPs and run them into the ground.
Sony makes them. Microsoft buys them. Two very different things. Quality is a separate issue, but related In that Microsoft apparently has a hundred billion dollars to spend but can’t make a great game by themselves in the last two decades. They have no taste for it. I hope they prove me wrong. I don’t want to see them become a monopoly of mediocre games that we have to subscribe for. I also don’t want to see Sony without competition.
Can’t agree more. I don’t think there’s a studio under MS that’s done better under their leadership/portfolio than they’d done prior to their acquisition. The studios created to shepherd Xbox franchises that original studios move on from generally have never matched the highs previously seen either.
I also don’t appreciate them hoovering up franchises, via acquisitions whilst failing to develop much new that’s if any note. All it does is condemn a growing back catalogue to mediocrity or have them disappear into the vault.
Sony aren’t perfect but their studios tend to produce top tier games that look and feel like they’re a tier above most, making the most of their “exclusivity”. Most (all?) their major releases are their own franchises developed in house too, and it feels like there’s a steadier turn out of new, quality IP to boot.
You don’t get it, though. Microsoft will put everything on Gamepass. Sony fanboys can suck on that!
Ignore the fact that them buying-up all these studios is objectively bad for our hobby and the industry, and that Gamepass has been touted as being objectively bad by everyone in the industry because studios receive a minuscule amount of revenue from it and that it disadvantages indie devs.
The only thing that matters here is that my metaphorical sports team beats your metaphorical sports team.
I mean Sonys last purchase was Firewalk Studios, who was working on a game that hasnt been publically shown(however, sony was given a preview of it privately) and they havent released a game yet, so they technically bought out an IP unless you claim they already hit the reset on whatever project they kept under the sheets.
Borderline I’d say, but if it’s not public Sony is buying based on devs / potential, not existing sales or hype, and at that point they are bankrolling a new IP and assuming all those associated risks.
It does if they decide to remove the windows conpatibility that was announced beforehand. So far they havent, but if they did, it would be treated the same.
I was too young for this at the time, but I have fond memories of Dark Forces II and its FMV cutscenes, which blew my mind at the time. I hope they remaster that one too (though I’d love a full-on remake, if allowed to dream).
Edit: I just remembered that even Windows was externally acquired, so I believe, it would be more correct to say that Microsoft has basically never innovated something themselves.
Yeah, it started its life as “Quick And Dirty Operating System” (don’t know, why they renamed it) and even that was basically a ripoff of CP/M: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/86-DOS
I guess, you can say that they did put in own effort into developing the windowing system. I wouldn’t want to call that “innovating”, since they were late to the party, but I guess, that would be moving the goal posts here…
Psychonauts 2 happened because Microsoft bought Double Fine and said, “How much time/money do you need to finish your game?” And basically gave it to them.
Hell yeah, I’m happy they did! That game was an absolute delight to play, just like the first one. The people at Double Fine really knock it out of the park!
Literally watched an interview with Tim Schafer, they ran out of Kickstarter money and Microsofr saved the day. Look it up before calling me out please.
No one saved the day, they fund raised before, everyone does, many people found publishers if needed after running out of croudfunded money. There is no saviour here.
Was Kickstarted for all consoles, they ran out of money, Microsoft bought them and left everything as-is, just gave more money. Go watch the interview about it.
I’m so happy they’re moving away from the “New Super Mario” formula.
Too bad they’re still going nuts on “everything is made out of plastic” look for the 2D games, but everything else is looking to be a major return to the World formula and that’s great
I just saw it on the PlayStation store on sale for like $50. May as well just give it away at this point and I still won’t play it, it’s silly they’re charging that much for it still, especially since the devs shut down
A German Youtube channel named Game Two, did a documentation about what went wrong and released it this weekend. Like the Developers they are based in Hamburg and did many interviews with former employees. It’s linked in the article but unfortunately only available in German.
videogameschronicle.com
Gorące