Why doesn't Microsoft just buy loads of studios so they

>>384112307
They already tried that once, see Rare.
Didn't pan out.

Because of laws and there aren't that many people in game dev. Japs have retarded laws making it impossible to even start up a Jap dev team but they're just fine with being able to buy up and run companies like Crystal Dynamics, IO, and all of Eidos into the ground.

MS execs don't like the Xbox brand and don't want to piss any more money away on it. They were already thinking about selling it off.

They've done it loads of times. Like any other fuckhuge corp the destroy the developer they buy trying to forcing them to make whatever is hot right now instead of what made the dev good to begin with.

>>384112550
It makes them money tho

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>>384112550
>Xbox gets put on the auction
>Sega buys it
>Back to the glorious days of batshit games like the HUEG days

>>384112307
Because they don't really care about videogames beyond flogging off multiplats to casuals. They've closed down a bunch of their internal studios and rarely, if ever, commission third parties for exclusives anymore.

>>384112598
Yeah, they sure killed Rare by making them make whatever they thought would make them a ton of money like a Pinata gardening simulator.

>343 Studios (Halo)
>ID@Xbox
>Lift London (Mobile)
>Mojang (Minecraft)
>Rare
>The Coalition (Gears of War)
>Turn10 (Forza)

Jesus Christ what an absolute shitshow no wonder nobody wants to work with them

>>384112750
And that was arguably one of their better games.

Microsoft does it sometimes, but it doesn't work out very often. Bungie worked out well for them, and then Bungie immediately died upon contact with Activision. But most would agree that Rare shriveled under Microsoft, and other devs as well. I think being the one American console maker hurts them a lot, because they just fuck up things with Japanese partners sometimes, and being a big company at all means that everyone isn't really focused on making sure the Xbox does well. I remember the guy they had around before the Xbone launched who was all gungho for the early anti-consumer features. That guy didn't care if the Xbone did well, he just assumed it would because the 360 did well enough and Sony was in the shitter at the time.

At this point, Microsoft knows it's an option, but is self aware enough to realize that they could destroy a studio and ultimately gain nothing in return. So I can see why they're wary of just buying people up.

Because every studio they touch burns down to ashes

Because they know that people don't buy exclusives unless they belong to huge, established franchises, like Halo and Gears.

Look at the sales for Sony's exclusives. Even the big ones like Uncharted don't get anywhere near as many sales as CoD or FIFA on the system.

Because they are fucking idiots
the 360 was so based., even with barely exclusives past 2010
How could they fuck it up so bad?

>>384113195
How about they establish a new franchise that turns into a huge franchise like Halo did?

>>384113195
Uncharted 4 is the 4th best selling PS4 game with over 9m units

>>384113253

Don't care enough.

>>384113274

Was also sold with the system in a bundle.

>>384113195
>Uncharted 4
>9 million sales
Microsoft is just fucking retarded

>>384113340
So is COD

>>384113274
It was bundled with the system. What other exclusives of theirs have sold big numbers?

>>384113427
Horizon Zero Dawn has around 3.5-4m in 4 months

>>384113427
Those MLB games they own the rights to always do well, unsurprisingly.

>>384113274
This is a bigger problem. Flashy garbage boring movie-games are not good for the market. Who buys that crap? The same people that buy FIFA and Madden.

>>384114296
How is it bad for the market if people buy games they want to play?

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>>384114296
Actually if MORE people like them that means YOU are in the minority and YOU are the one that has shit taste

Don't even bother @ing me with furious damage control

>>384112307
Microsoft should just buy Sony and Nintendo then they'd win the console war!

>>384114494
If the majority have shit taste then I am glad to be in the minority. According to you FIFA, CoD, Madden and DOTA are patrician tier

>>384115075
I don't play them but I don't cry about other stuff being more popular and then pretend like I'm a better person while they're having fun

>>384115331
Who said better person? Oh, only your strawman. When bad games become popular companies take notice and spend more time and money on bad games.I don't mind sports games at all. What gets me is crap like Uncharted and Fallout 4 being touted as prime examples of action adventure and RPGs. I don't want devs to focus on dumbed down pandering trash when those time, energy and resources could be better spent on quality games.

Are you honestly happy with the direction the industry is going?

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Do you think Xbox One X will be Microsoft's last console? DESU I'm getting tired of how shut M$ has become. They don't know how to design anything ever since Steve Ballmer left.

>>384115753
But you say “bad games” like fact when it's just you're opinion. I didn't like Fallout 4 either but if other people like it than woopdy fucking do I'll just mind my business and play something else and let them have their fun.

>>384115753
All the Uncharted games are good though.

>>384116104
Especially the card game

>>384112369
The rare thing didn't work because microsoft fucked themselfs over by using rare to create kinect games.

>>384112307
because
"Mobile First, Cloud first"

>>384113515
3.2 million in 4 months.

>>384115893
>Do you think Xbox One X will be Microsoft's last console?
No, are you dumb? http://wccftech.com/next-xbox-console-designed-codename/

>>384115940
>Oblivion
>Fallout 3
>Skyrim
>Fallout 4
Notice the downward trajectory of each of these games. Again, do you think this is promising? You haven't noticed all the other games emulating Bethesdas success by similarly dumbing down their games?
>there is no good and bad
>muh relativity
>Bad Rats is the same as Torment

Are you happy with the direction the industry is going?

>>384116375
Skyrim is better than Oblivion and it isn't even close, Fallout 4 was pretty disappointing though.

>>384116375
Never played them m8, except for like 10 hours of 4 which I didn't like. But I'm not going to autistically screech at the people who do

>>384115893
Obviously not. You really think that MS is gonna let sony monopolize the console market?

The only thing the xbox brand needs is a new leader not phil. Sure phil did hood to the brand but also killed it too by making all xbox games non-exclusive.

>>384116492
good*

>>384116492
They don't actually care if you play on Xbone or Windows 10. They just want you on their dick in some way. That's why there are no Xbone exclusives. That's how shitty MS is.

>>384112550
>They were already thinking about selling it off.
No, that was in 2014. Bill Gates just said "If they wanted to sell, then i would support it, it's up to Microsoft" and the Pajeet CEO said no.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-07-10-microsoft-boss-satya-nadella-commits-to-xbox
http://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/nadella-defends-value-of-xbox-gaming-to-microsoft/

>>384116623
And of course, xbox haters made it sound as if Microsof was going to sell or something like that back then (after 2013) conference.

>>384116676
>haters
Cringe

>>384116728
>cringe
Hello r.eddit

>>384112307
They can buy all the studios in the world. If they don't have the right leadership, those studios will fail. See EA, Ubishit and SquareEnix. Doesn't help most studios are shit to begin with. Major publishers only buy studios when they are already dying or when the dev doesn't give a shit anymore. Very rare are the cases when a studio is doing well and is sold, and if that happens, the price is very high.

Also the more studios they buy, the more expensive the other studios will get. Basic supply and demand rules.

Finally, Xbox is not really very profitable for MS. Invest more than what they already have will put the division in to deep red, which will angry the investors.

>>384116604
The whole Windows 10 thing imo is just an experiment for microsoft to see how profitable the pc market is. And lets be honest, its a fucking failure and the games MS publish on the pc inevitably get released on steam. If microsoft has any hopes for the xbox brand and its profits, they should drop the whole "universal" gaming into the trash.

>>384116772
Only redditors accuse other people of being reddit, reddit.

>>384112307
I really thought that this past E3 M$ was going to pull it together and make something happen, boy was I wrong.

Why can't console makers make a console that does feel truly unique and powerful, the Pro and Scorpio are what the original consoles should have been from the start, and get rid of online pay to play.

>>384116806
>Xbox is not really very profitable for MS.
It begun to be profitable for MS since 2014. The orignal xbox was the one not being profitable for M$.

>>384112307
Because shareholders want easy money, not risks

>>384112307
They tried and failed also they think hardware is what sells games when games sell games, what a surprise

>>384116469
Except I'm discussing them on a thread on 4chan, and replying directly to you. Since you don't play those games I'm not autistically screaming at those who do. Enough with the hyperbole, this is the last time I'll ask you since you dodged the question twice already.

Are you happy with the direction the industry is going?

>>384117121
I'm fine with it, could be better but could be much worse.

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Okay, let's assume Microsoft was just going to magically buy some studios. What studios would they even buy that would actually create a good game that people care about?

Future is mobile

>>384117317
Supposedly Microsoft is making a Horizon Zero Dawn clone, and I'm not even memeing the job listing literally said “similar to Horizon Zero Dawn”

Not going to save them but it's a good start, they need some single player games

>>384117510
Wasn't Spencer bitching and moaning about singleplayer games when Horizon and BotW came out close to each other and both did very well?

Money =/= good games.

Microsoft can purchase any developer tomorrow and they immediately run them into the ground because Microsoft exces has zero respect for the art of making video games nor do they know how to assess quality. They only care about $$ and thats why everything they make that isn't forza is committee-approved mediocre garbage.

One thing I will say is that since they are such greedy money hungry scum, they do generally do know what will be profitable and will do whatever it takes to get that money so when they say core games are dying and games as a service are the future, they are right as horrific as that truth is.

People dont want real games anymore, they want press A to win, freeium multiplayer 100 achievements per second cosmetic DLC insta reward games with zero challenge. Nintendo and Microsoft are two steps ahead of Sony in that regard but thankfully not everyone is a painstaking shit eating casual like customers for those two companies though but the tides are turning. We couldnt stop the real cancer of video games and Microsoft is going to ensure and fund it's collapse so they can turn a buck.

>>384117510
>Horizon Zero Dawn clone
No, they are just making an Open world game and it's done by Playground games studio, the one behind Forza Horizon Series.

>>384117510
Do people even really care about Horizon Zero Dawn? I honestly have no idea if it was popular or not as I do not own a PS4 or know anyone who does. I would imagine if MS wanted to make some money they'd try to get some kinda xbone exclusive Destiny clone (And yes I know Destiny is multiplatform)

>>384117623
Both don't make as much money as online multiplayer games.

Because talent can just leave at any time.
Which means you just spent hundreds on million of dollars on nothing but a name.

Contracting quality devs like Remedy and Crytek seems like a better deal after constantly losing studios like Bungie, Lionhead, Ensemble, FASA, Twisted Pixel etc

>>384117712
It sold well and was very well recieved so yes

>>384117712
It sold about 3.5 million copies in 4 months, so that's pretty respectable for a new IP.

>I would imagine if MS wanted to make some money they'd try to get some kinda xbone exclusive Destiny clone

Funny, since Mattrick shot down Bungie's initial pitch for Destiny since he figured them working on anything that wasn't more Halo wouldn't be profitable enough. They took it to Activision and it subsequently became the highest selling new IP of all time.

>>384112307
Expensive and does not offer great economic payout even if it succeeds.

Companies work with economic logic.

>oh shit we new new experiment ip
>Makes recorce

>Oh shit Sony has great ip called god of war
>name it gears of war and give it gunz

>oh shit Nintendo and Sony have mascots
>Makes Super Lucky Tail

>oh shit Sony has Uncharted
>Make quantum break

Everything they do is a cheap knock off game to meet the quota to give the impression they are actually competing and making games of equal quality to the competition but it's all a sham

>>384117742
Only popular online games make money. Look at Evolve, pushed hard as fuck and had to go f2p and eventually discontinued in a year

>>384117776
>Bungie
but destiny was a shit game.

>>384117783
>very well
3.2 millions out of 60.4 millions isn't wery well.

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>>384117852
Are you seriously saying that Gears is supposed to be a ripoff of God of War? Are you retarded?

How did Activision get such a huge monopoly on multplayer shooter games?

They have: cod, destiny, overwatch. Sheer domination

>>384117942
More importantly why is that Dog wearing people clothes

>>384117953
Overwatch is from the Blizzard part not Activision.

>>384117510
>Supposedly Microsoft is making a Horizon Zero Dawn clone, and I'm not even memeing the job listing literally said “similar to Horizon Zero Dawn”
They should make another studio finish Scalebound instead.

>>384113374
>Microsoft buys sony and Nintendo.
>New Atari becomes best selling console.

>>384117890
It's one of the biggest multiplats at the moment. Destiny would've been a huge exclusive for Xbox.

>trade Bungie for 343
>Halo 5 is the worst selling Halo of all time
They lost their bet.

>>384118125
This will never happen.

>>384116604
>Microsoft is shitty for bringing their games to a wider audience.
Lmao.
>>384115893
No they are in a great position right now. They can pump out a new better console with perfect backwards compatability and even crossgenerational games like that with a quick call to AMD every couple years. With easy pc porting.
>>384116492
I love Spencer, but probably for many of the same reasons you hate him. I guess that's just a different of preferences. I like videogames, you like console wars.

>>384118189
It doesn't make sense for a online multiplayer game to be exclusive. The point of those game is to have a big community.
Halo 5 sold 5 Million copies within 3 months after its release

>>384118114
Scalebound looked like shit

>>384118203
I'm aware of that yes.

>>384118332
At least, it was something a bit original.

>>384118318
>He thinks Microsoft genuinely wants to bring games to a wider audience and 'didn't do it because every game bombed on Xbox and they want to make their money back and ditch a sinking ship and brand

You wouldnt see a single ms game on windows 10 if the Xbox was thriving fool

>>384118359
When are they going to reveal the Ataribox anyway?

>>384118393
>platinum
>orignal
Lol. All their games play exactly the fucking same.

>>384116604
No, allowing people to play Xbox games on PC is more "for the players" than Sony will ever be.

How the fuck can you spin that as bad?

Speaking of HZD I find it funny
>Early 2000s
>Microsoft publishes Halo
>Ends up becoming one of the biggest fps franchises in the world
>Years later Sony publishes Killzone
>While being moderately successful, gets ripped on for being a “Halo clone”

>mid 2010s
>Halos sales and popularity are going down, but the keep making them
>Sony/GG Stop Killzone and make a new game in a different genre
>Horizon Zero Dawn is made, sells well and is very well recieved by players and critics
>Months later a job listing is found for MS for a game “similar to Horizon Zero Dawn”

>>384118393
>At least, it was something a bit original.
So is Bad Rats

>>384118189
There's a lot of disinfo with Bungie leaving Microsoft. They always wanted their 'creative freedom'. They were resentful to Microsoft since ODST. The only thing I find funny is that they left Microsoft for Activision, which is a worse beast. Also Halo dying down is natural. It's a 17 year old IP that has had it's ups and downs. Despite that, it still sold well.

>>384118436
Yes i would. UWP was a thing before xbone even launched. The reason and the xbone being x86 i see them is because of the directX12 api. They also want to have variable graphics and shit to support multiple xboxes anyway. So now it's easy as piss to port they make the same money on both platforms and can help ship windows 10. The reason they did it was to make money, samr reason any company does anything. But so what? I care more about the effect. Also xbone isn't bombing it's doing not terrible, picking up a bit. But this is /v/ and we speak hyperbole. Also they are doing the opposite of ditching the xbox brand, they are literally expanding it to windows...

>>384118643
Activision is the only other publisher of shitty generic AAA console shooters for children. Who else would be better equipped to handle the game? I imagine they had better resources and patents and shit.

God no.
Now that bungie is free, i am no longer disregarded as a sony fanboy for shitting on them.

>>384112307
because the power of their brand sells consoles without them having to try


it plays 99% multiplats but people buy it because its an xbox. not people here in the autism den that is /v/, but out in the real world where games are an occasional thing meant to be enjoyed and replaced.


this generation they were beat hard by the ps4. almost 2 to 1 sales. but that was after the xbox one was launched in an almost unsellable state. an xbox that plays the madden and the shooty will sell to people who arent discerning and know that xbox is the fun thing they use to play the video games.

>>384113374
You do realize that uncharted was a console bundle right just like how wii sports was a console bundle for the wii. The sales only spike especially in black friday because of that.

>>384118436
If Microsoft wqs actually concernes about poor sales of these, they would have never released on windows. Exclusives typically aren't made solely for direct profits, but rather as an incentive to get people to buy into your ecosystem.

>>384118983
What the fuck is this spacing?

>>384112307
Because buying a studio means you take on all their costs. Think about how often devs close down. Making games isn't that profitable without a couple of flagship cash grab pleb friendly casual titles to keep the money rolling in.

>>384119081
Sorry, I'm new here. On reddit you hit enter twice to make one linebreak.

>>384119081
Reddit spacing mobile posters not even trying to hide it.

>>384118436
>windows 10 if the Xbox was thriving fool
So no one remembered game for live windows during the Xbox 360?

>>384118476
>>Months later a job listing is found for MS for a game “similar to Horizon Zero Dawn”
Source?

>>384112369
That was MS fault for interfering. Prefect Dark Zero was fun.

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>>384112307
Because they realized that most people don't care about exclusives and their aren't as profitable as regular multiplat released games. They wasted to much money funding games from og xbox and 360 days but no one bought them and the return profits were always very low. Game journalists and the media never gave much spot light in Microsoft's exclusives as much as sony's games. It's been proven that most ps4 owners don't care about exclusives as well. It's mostly just Sony fanboys and pc gamers that own a ps4 that parade this idea that the only games that matter are the "exclusives".

>>384119198
Xbox play anywhere is nothing like "game for windows live." Instead of simply publishing PC games, Xbox play anywhere lets you buy a game once and own it on any windows 10 device (Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, surface etc) plus transferring saves, achievements and DLC content between them.

>>384119379
>"Let's just tweak St. Anger's cover artwork for Breakdown. People love that album, right?"

>>384117854
they sold millions of copies due hype they got their money back day 1

>>384113253
Big companies don't give a fuck enough. If a game fails, it's not going to be on their dime. They'll only back games that are guaranteed to win.

>>384118643
That's what I mean, though. MS thought the Halo brand was more important than giving Bungie creative freedom. That's why Bungie left.

If they had give creative freedom the the creators of Halo, they would own Destiny right now. But hey would rather hold onto a dying IP.

And that's why MS doesn't just buy studios. They care about brands, not about the talent that creates brands.

>>384112307
They could buy every independent studio in the industry and they'd still fuck it up because Our Phil has the touch of death.

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>>384120809
>Our Phil has the touch of death.
Phil Spencer has nothing to say in this. First party studio are handles my Microsoft Studios.

>>384120973
handled*

>>384112307
Because they're already profiting without having to spend money on first parties.

>>384118438
New details later this week. I'm guessing Wednesday

>>384120973
Find out who was in charge of them from 2008 to 2014, who's been greenlighting their projects since 2014 and who is directly in charge of the Halo and Gears franchises.

>>384121647
>https://twitter.com/shannonloftis
>Shannon Loftis
>General Manager of First-Party Publishing)
Yeah so?

Microsoft is going after the PC audience so hard

>First Party games pretty much consist of Multiplayer shooters (Halo, Gears) and sandbox and survival games inspired by Minecraft (Sea of Thieves, State of Decay)
>Have their own streaming service in Mixer
>Developing those meme stream games that interact with Mixer like The Darwin Project
>Putting their exclusives on PC/Windows 10 with cross buy/play
>E-Sports
>Xbox One X

>>384121843
>in charge of them from 2008 to 2014
>been greenlighting their projects since 2014
>directly in charge of the Halo and Gears franchises

that person is not Loftis

>>384122964
thats real retarded sir

>>384122964
M$ owns the pc market my dude

>>384122964
>Microsoft is going after the PC audience so hard
They have been doing this since forever but it usally fails.

>>384122985
Loftis has been in charge of Microsoft game since 1990. All of this to say that Phil spencer isn't the only one to make decision when it's about expensive AAA games.

>>384118318
>I love Spencer, but probably for many of the same reasons you hate him I guess that's just a different of preferences. I like videogames, you like console wars

Because you use a PC. Why wouldn't someone want to buy a console while they already have a good pc? Only games can make someone go "fuck it" and buy a second gaming console.

>>384123732
They don't. People still use Windows 7 instead of 10.

>>384124034
would* ffs auto correct

>>384122964
Steam must be terrified.

>>384124890
That's why SteamOS and Steambox in the 1st place.

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>Bought an Xbone S over a PS4 recently because I needed a Bluray player
>Don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything

It plays 4k blurays and games once in a while. PC/Switch is where its at anyway.

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>>384125216

>>384124930
happened*