tripenfall said:
Exactly, it's flawed thinking. If you look at the movie industry it's the same. A risk adverse culture where IP, sequels and franchises are considered the safe bet. Have a look at the movies that lost the most money last year. Most of them are sequels and franchises! https://screenrant.com/biggest-box-office-bombs-movies-2023/ |
It's crazy because we have these blackhole games taking everyone's time as well, the profit margins on Sony's AAAs are razor thin, Xbox's profit margins will be slightly better thanks to ABK but Nintendo remains king of the profit margins because their games aren't insane AAA blockbusters. Despite this the entire industry is doubling down on AAA.
It's not only Sony and Microsoft, Square Enix is basically gutting their entire structure to refocus on AAA, Take-Two is seemingly moving towards gutting everything in favour of Sports, Borderlands and GTA 6. It feels like the entire industry is saying they don't care for AA anymore but what happens when one of these AAAs flop? It'll tank the entire studio and more.
Still think Microsoft saw ABKs profit margins of 30-40% and want Xbox to apply that to every division (XGS + Bethesda)...Which is insane because it's COD and Candy Crush...Two of the biggest IPs in the world...Maybe Bethesda could get to a 30-40% profit margin by solely focusing on Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Doom and spinoffs of those IPs but I can't see how XGS reaches that margin without severe cuts.
EspadaGrim said:
That can't happen unless the big titles go Multiplat and if Halo and Gears go to PlayStation Xbox is officially dead as a platform to me, I can see Forza (both Horizon and Motorsport), AOE and Flight Sim going to other consoles day and date though. Activision will be staying one trick pony forever now. |
Yeah, they would need to take Halo and Gears multiplatform, of the XGS, they only have Minecraft which likely has very high profit margins, Forza Horizon and Sea of Thieves probably have strong profit margins but is strong good enough for Microsoft anymore when the bar seems to be COD? Other studios will have to pick up the slack, who can? AoE and Flight Sim probably have decent profit margins but that isn't enough either.
I don't actually care if Xbox goes fully multiplatform and didn't even before today but now I'm even more convinced if going fully multiplatform can save some studios then they need to rip the band aid off and do it now and forget about how many console gamers will be upset by it, the developers are more important, though that didn't save Tango...It may save others though because HFR was a late port and niche product.
I'd still play Xbox consoles as long as they made them even if they went fully multiplatform but decisions like yesterday are making me angry, I'm upset against practically every publisher in this industry now and I just want to run off to Steam because at least Valve isn't gutting studios left and right. The next Xbox hardware better dual-boot with Windows otherwise I'm looking into getting a SteamDeck.
| Leynos said: Remember when people wanted Xbox to buy SEGA and how against it I was? |
Sure and I don't want Microsoft to acquire Sega now but it ain't like Sega isn't absolutely gutting and mismanaging their Western Division, it's pretty much "everyone sucks right now" except from Nintendo and Valve.
zero129 said:
keep spitting that anti PC propaganda maybe someone will buy into it EDIT: |
Lol. I would still buy Xbox titles on Steam though, but as long as Game Pass exists I want to keep using that, I'm just not sure if Game Pass will exist in its current form anymore so I'll have to see what changes they make but I'm strongly thinking about moving more of my gaming over to PC, I'm just not sure where to start, I kind of want a SteamDeck but I also want to see if the rumours of Xbox's dual boot handheld are true.
I know studios close all the time, but the past 1-2 years has been horrific and I guess I'm reaching a breaking point, Lol. There's so much shit in the world right now and gaming is escapism from that but every-time I look it's multi-billion $ companies pulling in millions in profits then taking their studios out back to put a bullet in them, constant closing and layoffs and no end in sight.
shikamaru317 said:
Yeah, just earlier today I was talking about how it seems like Xbox and Sony are competing to try and prove they are the worst, instead of competing to see who is better. It's like they're actively trying to be as awful as possible. Honestly the two of them made my decision to switch to PC+Switch 2 an easy one. |
Yup.
Like someone said, every publisher is in a race to become the next EA, Lol. Only focusing on the big blockbusters. I love Halo, Gears, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Fable, Forza Horizon etc, but they shouldn't come at the cost of losing gems like Psychonauts 2, Hi-Fi Rush, etc. The human cost of focusing only on AAA blockbusters is not worth it either but it seems that is the future, every major publisher will be focusing on AAA blockbusters, no room for A-AA.
| KiigelHeart said: This is not even surprising news really.. there's been bad juju around Xbox ever since Microsoft bought AB. |
Arkane Austin wasn't surprising and in fact a lot of people understand it, Prey was a good game but it flopped, then Redfall was both a terrible game and bombed, it was 6 years between Prey and Redfall, it may have been 5-6 years before their next title so we're talking 12 years of not making a profit for Arkane Austin.
But I still believe that could have/should have merged them instead, either merge them into BGS Austin or split them in half, merge one half into BGS Austin and merge the rest of Arkane Austin back into Arkane Lyon as a small support studio. Fallout 76 is popping off right now and Bethesda needs more developers for Fallout, Arkane Austin is literally in the same city as BGS Austin, they both developed a multiplayer focused title and Arkane has experience with shooters which is beneficial to Fallout, if anything BGS Austin should be the Fallout developer moving forward and Arkane Austin could have helped facilitate that.
Tango is baffling, as I said they are a Japanese studio, employee salaries are lower than America, Hi-Fi Rush may have underperformed but they also had Ghostwire Tokyo released near it, maybe both underperformed but I'd say that's better than 1 bomb after 6 years and they didn't even give Hi-Fi Rush a chance, to make the decision to close only a month after it released on PS5 makes me question what the point in porting it even was and they also didn't wait for Switch 2 either which could have boosted it some more.
Killing your only studio in Japan, who produced one of your highest rated titles.
I'm not blaming Game Pass for the closures though like others, Game Pass is profitable, I blame ABK Tbh, I think Microsoft saw the incredible profit margins that ABK has and wants that to apply to all of XGS/Zenimax and just "profitable" isn't good enough anymore, they want to be "VERY profitable" and they want it fast, so Game Pass can still exist but it seems they're moving focusing to the big guaranteed money hit blockbusters like Sony.
Matt Booty's statement seems to suggest that.
| VersusEvil said: Well .. Hellblade 2 in 13 days, looking forward to it 👀 … should probably put it in the title seeing as you have space. |
Hopefully reviewers don't take their anger out on Microsoft on this game...Not intentionally but going into reviewing a game with a bad mood against the publisher of the game can probably influence your thoughts, IIRC didn't someone admit that they were too harsh on Quantum Break because they were upset at Xbox at the time?
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