MS CFO Tim Stuart defends throwing MTX into $70 games.

[DonFerrari]

sales2099 said:

Runa216 said:

You know the main difference between you and I? You've already determined that Avowed is a system seller despite it not being out yet, you're already 100% convinced of the future despite everything in the past not fuelling that narrative. You've already decided that everything in the past 10 years means nothing and you're treating the future as certain whereas I am not. 

I'm not saying Returnal or Kena are going to be absolute bangers. I don't think FFXVI is going to be an instant hit yet just because it's a PS5 exclusive (at least timed exclusive). All my arguments and my points of view come from history, patterns, and proven track records. Insomniac is going to knock it out of the park with Ratchet & Clank because they always do and are coming off a studio high with Spider-Man. the New God of War is going to be great because the last one was. When was the last time Fable was good? When was the last time Microsoft successfully launched a new franchise? I ask because Sony did so with Horizon and that game was a critical and commercial success. 

And you know the difference? Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne, and so many other Sony franchises are absent of loot boxes and microtransactions whereas stuff like Forza, Halo, and Gears are littered with microtransactions. Gran Turismo has them, sure, but that's one franchise out of dozens. Microsoft's three MAIN franchises are littered with them, and yet still you find that okay. 

I criticize Sony a lot. Sony has a LOT of shit I don't like or outright hate or think is overrated as hell. I can't stand The Last of us, I think gran Turismo and MLB the Show are bland, boring, repetitive, uninteresting games. I think Uncharted is one of the most overrated franchises in history and I outright HATE the PS2/3 God of War games...but even if you cut all these games out of the equation, there's still plenty of top-selling, critically acclaimed games with enough variety to please me and clearly many others. Oh, and very few of Sony's games have microtransactions of any sort. If you don't like Shooting games or racing games, you might as well not even have an Xbox, becuase that's basically all they have outside of Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Sea of Thieves. 

We're nothing alike, and the fact that you can't differentiate our styles and perspectives shows how blind you really are. and the fact that I've been banned for criticizing Microsoft/Xbox too hard shows that you are a minority in need of protection. or that there's a gross bias on this forum. Either way, time will tell what method works better, single-player third-person story-driven games without microtransactions or multiplayer focused games with tonnes of microtransactions and monthly fees, just like it has been for the last fucking decade. 

Guess I’ll respond to each paragraph. It’s easy to get a text wall from you. Anything that is similar to Skyrim is a potential system seller. Obsidian is a respected studio. I’m optimistic for the future because they have 23 studios including Bethesda. The past they had 5 studios. 5, with Mojang being one of them and multiplat. Excuse me if I know the mathematical difference between 5 and 23 lol. 

I agree Sony is consistent and Xbox has everything to prove. All I ask is that you not be such a Debbie Downer and let people like me be optimistic. This year alone Xbox Studios put out 10 games, and only Bleeding Edge scored below 70 on metacritic. Ori and Flight SIM scored above 90. I do have reason to be hopeful of the trend of quality continuing. 

The games you listed including GT7 having mtx all have multiplayer that are supported for years. That’s not a coincidence. And as I’ve said before Xbox first party played through GP nullifies the upfront costs as the service gets bigger and bigger. But I think we both agree that truly predatory mtx in games deserve to be complained about. 

Hey you like what you like, just like how Xbox appeals to me with its FPS, strategy, multiplayer, WRPG appeal, and general financial sense with GP. I don’t like certain things about Xbox. I don’t like how they share their IPs with PS. I like horizon but can’t get into Motorsport. I think 343 is poorly managed. 

Meh were alike in how dug in we are in our beliefs. But it’s comical how opposite we are too. I suggest not to discuss further unless it’s PM. 

I would say his problem with you isn't you being optimistic, is you determining certainty and bragging.

It is completely different being confident that with the new studios MS will be able to push a lot more great games (be them exclusive or not), another thing is to be certain that they will outperform Sony with the number, quality and sales of said games. Similar to the discussions I have to the specs of Xbox and PS5, anyone saying they were confident MS would have the most powerful because it was important to the company and they would invest a lot in it I would be fine accepting, the ones that said it was certain thing (as if MS could control what Sony do or had spies to know what Sony would do and them come above) were the ones I had issues with.