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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Ex Lionhead Producer: Microsoft the “Destroyer” of 1st Party Studio

TheMessiah on 09 March 2016

Some of this is getting pretty out of hand.

Lionhead were a studio on decline over the last 6 years. AAA budget games that didn't release games that made that money back. Its a business. Fable Legends looked very mediocre.

Over the years Sony has been no different in closing studios down. Recently losing zipper interactive and Sony Liverpool and Psychosis. At 1 point Yoshida had to answer the media that Mid sized studios were unfortunately finding it tough, so it was goodbye.

Microsoft have some great 2nd party collaborations and 9 First party developers with some working on multiple games as Microsoft actually took a lot of developers from Ensemble Studios for example and made other existing teams bigger.

IF we see a problem with exclusives throughout the gen then we can definitely say MS is struggling. But Microsoft just announced 2 weeks ago that they have put more money into exclusive Xbox content than any history before right now.

And MS have also got more OWNED IP this generation than any previous generation they have had. So whatever happens behind closed doors. Its working for great games not playable on other consoles. And this year is no different if not better than last year.



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Sprash on 09 March 2016
TheMessiah said:

Some of this is getting pretty out of hand.

Lionhead were a studio on decline over the last 6 years. AAA budget games that didn't release games that made that money back. Its a business. Fable Legends looked very mediocre.

Over the years Sony has been no different in closing studios down. Recently losing zipper interactive and Sony Liverpool and Psychosis. At 1 point Yoshida had to answer the media that Mid sized studios were unfortunately finding it tough, so it was goodbye.

Microsoft have some great 2nd party collaborations and 9 First party developers with some working on multiple games as Microsoft actually took a lot of developers from Ensemble Studios for example and made other existing teams bigger.

IF we see a problem with exclusives throughout the gen then we can definitely say MS is struggling. But Microsoft just announced 2 weeks ago that they have put more money into exclusive Xbox content than any history before right now.

And MS have also got more OWNED IP this generation than any previous generation they have had. So whatever happens behind closed doors. Its working for great games not playable on other consoles. And this year is no different if not better than last year.

2012 is recently for you?



 

 

TheMessiah on 09 March 2016
Sprash said:
TheMessiah said:

Some of this is getting pretty out of hand.

Lionhead were a studio on decline over the last 6 years. AAA budget games that didn't release games that made that money back. Its a business. Fable Legends looked very mediocre.

Over the years Sony has been no different in closing studios down. Recently losing zipper interactive and Sony Liverpool and Psychosis. At 1 point Yoshida had to answer the media that Mid sized studios were unfortunately finding it tough, so it was goodbye.

Microsoft have some great 2nd party collaborations and 9 First party developers with some working on multiple games as Microsoft actually took a lot of developers from Ensemble Studios for example and made other existing teams bigger.

IF we see a problem with exclusives throughout the gen then we can definitely say MS is struggling. But Microsoft just announced 2 weeks ago that they have put more money into exclusive Xbox content than any history before right now.

And MS have also got more OWNED IP this generation than any previous generation they have had. So whatever happens behind closed doors. Its working for great games not playable on other consoles. And this year is no different if not better than last year.

2012 is recently for you?

Recently in the game industry is 5 years to me. My point is companies restructure all the time. Rare is said to be now 3x the size it was in 2005. apparently working on 2 or more games. We might see A proper Banjo Kazooie 3 at E3. Who knows. The days of I have 30 studios are long past. Especially considering studios of 30-50 people become unprofitable.



Nate4Drake on 09 March 2016

This is why I prefer Sony 1 thousand times !



”Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

Harriet Tubman.

LemonSlice on 09 March 2016

I remembered the line from a strategy guide, perhaps Kinect Sports from Prima: "Now I am become Microsoft, destroyer of 1st party studios." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.



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Pemalite on 09 March 2016
Chris Hu said:
Pemalite said:

Pretty sure EA couldn't have disbanded lionhead as they never owned the studio, they had a relationship similar to Crytek, they would have just ceased being their publisher and offering them financial support, again that could have been found elsewhere... Which  just happened to be Microsoft's outright purchase so they could enter the console market with ample first party studios.

 

This is a big loss, just like any other notable developer making games that people enjoy, not all developers hit it big on their first release, it took Bungie a few franchises to bring us Halo.

Nope its not really a big loss since the last good game they made is Fable II.  Team Bondi being dismantled after just one game is a much bigger loss L.A. Noire sold better then any game ever published by Lionhead Studios.

In your opinion. Mine is different. There is certainly talent at Lionhead.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

AsGryffynn on 09 March 2016

...And... It's back on the MS site... Perhaps not closed after all...



LudicrousSpeed on 09 March 2016
Nate4Drake said:
This is why I prefer Sony 1 thousand times !

Yes, because they never destroyed or closed down a studio lol.



vkaraujo on 09 March 2016

According Wikipedia:

Microsoft
Defunct First-Party - Total: 8

  • Aces Studio – Microsoft Flight Simulator series
  • Digital Anvil – Brute Force, Freelancer
  • Ensemble Studios – Age of Empires series, Halo Wars
  • FASA Studio – MechWarrior series, Shadowrun
  • Hired Gun – Halo 2 for Windows Vista
  • Lionhead Studios – Fable series, Black & White series
  • Microsoft Game Studios Japan – Magatama, Phantom Dust
  • Press Play – Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Kalimba

Defunct Second-Party - Total 8

  • Artoon – Blinx series, Blue Dragon
  • Bizarre Creations – Project Gotham Racing series
  • Carbonated Games – Hexic series
  • feelplus – Lost Odyssey
  • Game Republic – Every Party
  • Hudson Soft – Fuzion Frenzy 2
  • Realtime Worlds – Crackdown
  • Southend Interactive – Lode Runner 2009, ilomilo

Sony
Closed studios - Total: 5

  • 989 Studios
  • BigBig Studios
  • Incognito Entertainment
  • Studio Liverpool
  • Zipper Interactive

Nintendo
Errr... - Total: Why Nintendo? Why?

  • Not buying Rare when they should?
  • Not buying Hudson Soft when they should?
  • Not buying Atlus when they should?
  • Haven't bought Sega, yet, for some reason.


foxtail on 10 March 2016
vkaraujo said:

According Wikipedia:

Microsoft

Defunct Second-Party - Total 8

  • Hudson Soft – Fuzion Frenzy 2

Nintendo
Errr... - Total: Why Nintendo? Why?

  • Not buying Hudson Soft when they should?

blame Wikipedia or Konami?