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goopy20 said:
shikamaru317 said:

The Initiative- AAA studio being built slowly with top tier talent from some of the best studios in the world. Believed to be working on a new AAA story driven 3rd person game, which is confirmed for announcement in 2020. Other 1st party studios are providing some development assistance while they staff up, since they don't want to rush the staffing process. 

Playground Studio 2- AAA RPG studio being built slowly with top tier talent. Believed to be working on a Fable Reboot.

Ninja Theory- AA studio capable of developing AAA games by using technology to make up for the developer deficit. They made Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice in 3 years with a team of just 20 people, and they are expanding that team for Hellblade 2. They also have a 3rd project other than Hellblade 2 and Bleeding Edge in development.

Obsidian- 1 AA team working on DLC for The Outer Worlds and a sequel to The Outer Worlds. 1 AAA team rumored to be working on a 3D Pillars of Eternity game that plays like Skyrim. 1 A team working on Grounded. 

Double Fine- One of the top indie/single A developers in the industry, with multiple hits under their belt. Unknown what they are working on besides Psychonauts 2, though it is highly likely that they have multiple games in development at once given their track record. 

Compulsion- AA studio. Their first game, We Happy Few, was shaky at best, but they are currently staffing up for a new IP, and they're hiring AAA talent for that project, including most recently 2 developers who formerly worked at Eidos Montreal on Deus Ex and Thief. 

Meanwhile they're rumored to be searching for more studios to acquire right now, with scouting teams spotted in Poland and Phil Spencer saying in interviews that he would like to get an Asian 1st party studio.

Doesn't Playground make the Forza Horizon games? Anyways, we will see. But lets be honest here, building new successful ip's to keep things fresh isn't exactly MS's strong suit. Since the original Xbox launched almost 2 decades ago, they have only managed to build 3 successful ip's (Halo, Gears and Forza) and they have been desperately trying to clamp onto them ever since, even when those franchises aren't that popular anymore. Compare that to Sony's studio's who are given the creative freedom to try new things and come up with games like: Horizon Zero Dawn, Spiderman, TLOU, Ghost of Tsushima etc.

I'm sure MS knows they will never beat Sony with their exclusives so it's a smart move to launch a more powerful console. Risky move for sure because if they launch $100 or more expensive than the ps5 and the extra performance doesn't really translate to that much better graphics, they are pretty much screwed. Also, if Sony's console does fit normally under most people's telly's it could also be a problem for MS. Still, if these rumors are true I have to applaud MS for having the balls to go all out on their next console's hardware.

What makes continuing successful franchises "desperate"? Sony does this with their big franchises, too. Nintendo does it with their big franchises. This year we'll see new Fast and Furious, Wonder Woman, and Bond movies. Are these studios "desperate"? Is Sony "desperate" for making new Ghostbusters, Venom, Hotel Transylvania, Bad Boys, etc film sequels? Hell aren't they making an Uncharted movie?

During the PS/PS2/PS3 era you might have a point about Sony and new IP's but that certainly wasn't the situation this gen. Both MS and Sony failed this gen when it came to new IP's, for different reasons. Was it laziness on Sony's part with their huge sales lead or are they just at a point where they'd rather their studios release one or two games per gen? Either way it's a far cry from past generations. I've mentioned on this forum how Sony's game output was way way down this gen and was told "quality over quantity" but again I'll ask, why not both? Sony used to deliver both. Now they're way down on quantity and even quality. They're obviously still ahead of MS simply thanks to studios like Naughty Dog and Insomniac's track records but people are talking about Sony's success building studios and they mention these please others like Guerrilla.. Sony didn't build these, they bought them.

MS can very easily beat Sony on exclusives because you never know what will happen from one gen to the next. Look at Nintendo and the Switch. Look at Sony's output this gen compared to past gens. I'm not saying it will happen, just that there's no guarantee of anything not happening.