badgenome said:
I assume Ensemble and ACES were dropped because Microsoft doesn't see them as very important for their console, which obviously is a much higher priority than Games for Windows. Bungie weren't cut, but were rather let go. Very literally. They wanted out to keep from being absorbed by Microsoft Games Studio and losing their identity. I think it's because Microsoft has ambitions of turning MGS into a powerhouse publisher, judging from their actions and also from things that Kudo Tsunoda has said. They seem to think it's more desirable to work closely with third parties to make their "first party" games than to go through all the expense of keeping up a bunch of studios. |
I'm not sure I understand the strategy as their actions seem to contradict their intentions. How do you get to be a big 'powerhouse' publisher without owning lots of studios? I think there's a dimishing number of quality third-party developers that aren't publishers themselves or in some way affilitated with another large 'powerhouse' publisher, and the ones that are available MS runs the risk of them being snatched up. I'm not sure a lot of developers would want to partner with MS as their publisher as obviously it means exclusivity, for if they were to partner with EA, Sega or Activision for example they could presumably double their profits through benefitting from a multi-platform release. Who do you see MS turning to for 'first party' games?
