SvennoJ said:
Yep, Halo Infinite going f2p confused me as well. Perhaps there still is some tug of war going on at the top level. Maybe MS is just trying to put their eggs in all the baskets and see what works best. |
i see your point. Also, yes, big screen will play a part on this, but i still think games "made for TV/monitor and controller/KBM" are not the better fit for mobile.
Shooter (FPS/TPS), turn based RPGs and perhaps racing are kinda "ok" fit, but still.... meh, IMHO, to make a "Big splash" on mobile market you need people to think "i need this on my mobile device" and not "i already have this for my big screen, so why not use on my mobile device!?".
I'm just a lawyer that likes to talk about game industry, but i don't think Gamepass, or "Xcloud", can do big numbers on "mobile"... as i said before, F2P is king and cellphones hardware is becoming crazy good, no reason to use cloud, just play using the hardware inside your phone and games that are made for your phone!!
That said, MS just made a great step on the F2P market! I'm not sure if $69Bi is a good deal for Call of Duty Mobile, Candy crush and other future stuff like Diablo mobile, but, as you said, they are not just thinking about consoles, there is a much bigger fish in the "ocean of 6Bi potential gamers" and they want money from them.
Pemalite said: Just remember Microsoft is more than just Xbox. |
With all due respect, why do they need "small IPs" for Mobile, Game Pass, or any other service?
Example: You have produced 2 games of equal quality, one called "Avowed" and the other called "Elder Scrolls:". I ask, which one do you think is more likely to succeed? And which one will make the biggest impact and possibly bring more people to Gamepass?
And the same goes for countless other examples:
Why make an excellent third-person action game called "Hell Blade: Senua's Saga", when I can make an excellent third-person action game called (hypothetically) "Diablo: The Beginning" that will have a much greater chance of success and does a better "headline" on gamepass!?
Why make something with "Fable" name, when they can make something with "Warcraft"!? Why keep doing "Psychonault" when they can make "Skylanders & Crash"?
I'm not saying that Xbox will never create new IPs again, far from it, "novelties" are necessary sometimes. Creating something new and with "undefined" potential will happen, but I don't see any reason for them to invest in past IPs that were "not successful" or "were modestly successful" when they can put money on their many "let's print money IPs" ...
I'm going to elaborate one thing better... I hope my words don't sound offensive or boastful.
There is only 1 reason not to use a "big and profitable IP", lack of trust in whoever makes the game. A bad job can hurt the reputation of a franchise (looking at you Sonic), and this may justify the existence of "smaller IPs", bad developers making bad games just to create numbers within Gamepass... of course, it also makes sense use these developers only to support "stronger studios", like making post-lauch support for games in the "Gaas" and "f2p" model.