| Flame said: I'm pretty disappointed with MS also, SO4 im worried about due to Tri-Ace's previous projects (TLR,IU) and I dislike RTS ala Halo Wars. Sony is really looking nice in '09. KZ2 is really shaping up nice. |
It's because MS keeps shedding game staff and development houses. The lack of AAA games in the pipeline to announce is a direct result of that. I mean now would be the time to buy up developers that are available on the cheap not shed staff and developers like the continually successful RTS team from Ensemble and the Flight Simulator guys. All that seems to be left now is Bungee and Rare which, given Rare's not great post Nintendo track record, means they only have Bungee as a sole AAA developer. They also have a few aliances with Epic, Valve and Lionshead but they're really cutting back hard on their first party footprint.
Is it possible that MS is trying to ease out of the segment like they are with the Zune to concentrate more on Windows 7 and other profit centers? You can tell Sony is still in it for the long haul as they buy up developers and maintain a dozen first party studios (they just bought another developer which they turned into SOE Austin a few weeks ago) and Nintendo seems to maintain a pretty healthy Nintendo branded development house, so why is Microsoft not buying up some successful developers? Instead they seem to be doing the opposite and taking the axe to studios that have been pretty golden in the past, Age of Empires 1-3 certainly came nowhere near losing money.
The one other possibility is that they're keeping a new console release under wraps and all the big games are being developed to launch with that. If they are shooting for a 2010 launch then they would certainly need to be making the launch games right now. So they're either headed out or getting ready for the 3rd round it seems.
PSN ID: ChosenOne feel free to add me
