So the Campaign is the problem for Crackdown 3? just delay it to early 2019. MS has been acting like amateurs this gen their 1st party is a godamn mess.

Couple of factors led to this. Disaster announcing the Xbox One which led to low sales and leadership change. That led to low sales on games that they put money in to. That led to no high dollars going to major projects except what they know would sell. I believe Sataya put the clamps on the money and lowered the budget.

I kind of blame the Xbox fans too. They are stuck not going outside their genre or won't try any other new games except what they're used too.

I felt Dead Rising 3, Ryse, D4, Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, Killer Instinct all deserved wayyyyy better sales than what they got. That's a good list without even mentioning Forza Halo and Gears.

Nah, Ryse and Quantum Break were pretty bad games and didn't warrant a lot of sales as for the rest yeah they did, Sunset Overdrive is probably the most creative game I've played made by a triple A studio, it was different, risky and actually really fun. The game definitely deserves a sequel. 

I lost all good faith in them after New Vegas... And the contradictory horror of that BoS bitch... 

It seems unfair to Crackdown as that was never intended to be a huge AAA production, or am I mistaken?

The impending release of God of War with its super high metacritic seems to have opened a can of worms for Phil Spencer and the studios he oversees as head of the Xbox division.

Crackdown 3 is being made by 2 studios and the cloud multiplayer looks expensive to make and it keeps getting delayed. I don't think it was intended to be AAA at first but its definitely AAA now.

If they actually did add a story with cut scenes even, that would be great. 

So basically, they aren't doing it. It's pretty hard to hide when you're hiring for a whole new studio's worth of people, and/or buying one out. Not exactly something that flies under the radar.

Of course it's failed them this gen. The whole second party studio thing only works if you are in a position of strength in the market, so those developers are incentivized to keep working for you, rather than seeking greener pastures where they can reach a much larger audience with their games. It's not a sustainable business model. Phil Spencer running around saying "oh shucks....we just want devs who really wanna work with us to work with us" is very cute, really, but it will never lead to any meaningful expansion for them.

2nd party deals would work if the games sold well. They didn't and it backfired. Remedy with Alan Wake and Quantum Break. Really good 1st games that hadn't been in the 1st party stable for MS. They don't sell they don't get continued. Sunset as well. We'd already have a part two of those 3 franchises.