Machiavellian said:
That is the key, you actually do not know how much or little MS actually does pay attention. You do not know the communications that was going on between Bethesda and MS, the agreements between both companies. For all we know, Bethesda was telling MS everything is great and there was never a reason for MS or Phil to doubt those accounts. There is always a trust between companies when they merge especially if they also have top management. What you want is oversight from MS but that is not always the best option. Micromanaging another company can have your work force leave in droves. MS doesn't need to micromanage Bethesda, they need Bethesda to make sure they are communicating projects correctly. There is a lot of information we are missing which is what I am saying. I personally do not believe MS need to micromanage any of their studios as long as those studios are communicating with MS correctly. The reason you bought those studios because they were successful in know how to make games so you let them continue to do what they do best. In this instance, there were issues and its obvious it was not correctly communicated properly. Noticed how Phil took the fall as well he should but we did not see Tom take any blame. I am sure both Todd and Phil had some long and uncomfortable talks about how this cannot happen again. |
Phil literally did a teary eyed interview where he himself said that they were not actively engaged enough with Arkane, and that they need to rework their whole internal processes. All I can do is look at the information as it's presented to me.
I didn't say that MS needs to micromanage Bethesda. I should HOPE that they don't need to be micromanaging their studios, looming large over them like a scolding parent. But they DO need to be involved. Certainly involved enough to see red flags developing, and be in a position to intervene and stop a potentially bad situation from spiraling. This is not a binary situation of either MS totally hands off, or MS checking their pockets at the door and telling them what to eat.
And it would be one thing, if there had never been any issues with their hands off approach before, but that's not the case. It's simply not good enough to keep using this philosophy as a shield and try to pass the buck to studio heads, and now Bethesda. Is there culpability there? Of course. But Phil, I hope, understands that at the end of the day, it falls on him to make sure they are not simply reacting in the aftermath of these situations. I'm kinda tired of talking about this now honestly, cus I feel like I just keep repeating myself, and some of you are just kinda cool with "shit happens, it was somebody else's fault, very unfortunate, oh well, hope we trust better people next time." I'm just not with that.
Like Shaunodon said before too...it's not like Redfall was some game you were just vaguely aware of either...or at least you shouldn't have been. You made it the final piece of your first E3 show with Bethesda. You highlighted it again the year after, and then made it one of the pillars of the developer direct to start the year. At any of these points, did you actually review the state of the game? For longer than like 2 minutes? Wtf does that process look like over there? I mean Phil is always talking about meeting the teams to review stuff in preparation for these events. How in depth are these reviews for anything that isn't Starfield? We know you care about that...how much did you care about Arkane? How much do you care about Ninja Theory, Obsidian, etc?
MS needs to ENGAGE with their teams. Not micromanage them. Not babysit them. Not leave them to their own devices until something goes wrong. Just. Fucking. Engage. Be involved.
That's all I got to say on it.
