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derpysquirtle64 on 06 June 2021
shikamaru317 said:

Grubb is saying that Scarlet Nexus will be day one Gamepass, suggests that MS paid for it after seeing the positive download numbers for their timed exclusive demo. And of course the director of the game already said like 2 months ago that he wanted the game to be day one Gamepass.

I still heavily doubt it based on the fact that Scarlet Nexus is gonna be the first Xbox retail release in Japan since Gears 5 in 2019. Bandai Namco obviously has a certain expectations for retail sales if they've made a choice to release it physically. Maybe they even plan to evaluate the possibility of releasing games physically on Xbox in Japan again, based on Scarlet Nexus performance. Putting the game on Game Pass day one will throw the Japanese retail release under the bus, so I'm not sure Bandai would agree on such deal if they already planned a physical release in advance. I wouldn't worry about this game on GamePass though. It has Xbox marketing right from the announcement so I would be genuinely surprised if it doesn't make it to service by year's end. I'll give it 6 months to hit GamePass anyway.

EspadaGrim said:
Spoiler!

Nick on the XboxEra podcast said the IP that MS is acquiring isn’t AAA and more AA, I wonder what studio it could be that would come along with it. I think that it would be weird if it was an Indie Studio but it could be Studio MDHR and Cuphead.

Of the possibilities that would fit the criteria my most wanted would be GSC Gameworld and Stalker or Studio Wildcard and Ark, one that would be cool to see would be Mundfish and Atomic Heart.

Whoever it is I hope to see it announced at E3.

Spoiler!
I can easily bet against it being MDHR. For some reason, after the exclusivity deal for Cuphead has expired, they weren't really showing any signs of interest in working with Xbox exclusively again tbh. I'll be really surprised if it's them.


 

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Machiavellian on 07 June 2021
shikamaru317 said:

Man, this whole mess with Bungie and Marty O'Donnell is wild. Basically the gist is:

  • Several months ago, Marty chose to offer free downloads for some of the music he created for various game soundtracks over the years (including Myth and Oni). He also had some of his music posted on his own Youtube channel, de-monetized.
  • Yesterday, he tweets about how he is considering retiring from the games industry, then tweets that he might have to delete his personal Youtube channel, and when someone asks why, he says "ask Pete Parsons" (the CEO of Bungie). All of those tweets are deleted now today.
  • Today he tweets about his new album, asking people to buy it, saying that he needs the money to pay for his huge legal bills. All of the pieces of evidence seem to line up with Bungie suing Marty over offering free downloads of some of his older songs, and re-posting his songs on his personal, de-monetized youtube channel.
  • All of this of course coming after Bungie fired Marty in 2014, denying him pay for unused vacation and sabbatical time, closing his stock out, and denying him participation in Bungie's employee profit sharing plan for his work on Destiny's soundtrack. He sued Bungies' CEO at the time, Harold Ryan, for wrongful termination and won that suit, and also won his suit against Bungie for his stock being closed and his removal from the employee profit sharing plan.

In short, modern Bungie is super corporate and shitty. 

Before I throw Bungie underneath the buss I would say there are probably multiple things going on here.  The thing is without delving to deep into the situation is did Marty have the rights to release licensed work that he probably did not own.  Just because you created something does not mean you own it if its licensed to a particular company.  As developers we face this all the time with created code and works and you have to make sure if you are creating something its totally independent of the company you work for and use none of their resources.  THe knee jerk would be just to side with Marty but he could be in the wrong.



kenjab on 07 June 2021

I finished the new Game Pass game, The Wild at Heart, yesterday and highly recommend it. It's clearly inspired by Nintendo mainstays like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion and features some fun, clever puzzles. Highly recommend it! It took me about 20 hours to 100%.

Before that, I finished Genesis Noir and did not like that one nearly as much. I had no idea what was going on in the story; it was weird mash up of a detective story with elements of the Big Bang, strange as that sounds. There's not much in terms of gameplay, which mostly consisted of walking in one direction before you get to the next story beat. What puzzles were there were not very well explained. Not recommended, but only took about 5 hours to 100%.



Switch: SW-3707-5131-3911
XBox: Kenjabish

Loneken on 07 June 2021
kenjab said:

I finished the new Game Pass game, The Wild at Heart, yesterday and highly recommend it. It's clearly inspired by Nintendo mainstays like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion and features some fun, clever puzzles. Highly recommend it! It took me about 20 hours to 100%.

Before that, I finished Genesis Noir and did not like that one nearly as much. I had no idea what was going on in the story; it was weird mash up of a detective story with elements of the Big Bang, strange as that sounds. There's not much in terms of gameplay, which mostly consisted of walking in one direction before you get to the next story beat. What puzzles were there were not very well explained. Not recommended, but only took about 5 hours to 100%.

I just start The Wild at Heart (Only 2 hours into the game) but is really fun with good puzzles and a unique look.

Knights and Bikes in gamepass is kinda similar and very good too. (Has 2 players coop)



smroadkill15 on 07 June 2021
kenjab said:

I finished the new Game Pass game, The Wild at Heart, yesterday and highly recommend it. It's clearly inspired by Nintendo mainstays like Pikmin and Luigi's Mansion and features some fun, clever puzzles. Highly recommend it! It took me about 20 hours to 100%.

Before that, I finished Genesis Noir and did not like that one nearly as much. I had no idea what was going on in the story; it was weird mash up of a detective story with elements of the Big Bang, strange as that sounds. There's not much in terms of gameplay, which mostly consisted of walking in one direction before you get to the next story beat. What puzzles were there were not very well explained. Not recommended, but only took about 5 hours to 100%.

I'm in the middle of Undertales so once I finish that, I'll give Wild at Heart go. I started playing Genesis Noir when it came out. Very interesting game from a design and artistic perspective, but I've lost interest due to the gameplay being lackluster. Since you said it's only 5 hrs I might go ahead and finish it. 



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smroadkill15 on 07 June 2021

As far as acquisitions go, Neon Giant could fit the bill. Xbox shows a trailer for The Ascent which releases next month and then announces the acquisition.



EspadaGrim on 07 June 2021
smroadkill15 said:

As far as acquisitions go, Neon Giant could fit the bill. Xbox shows a trailer for The Ascent which releases next month and then announces the acquisition.

Not happening Embracer owns 24% of the studio and they are 100% going to buy the rest after the game launches. They wouldn’t let it go to MS.

https://mobile.twitter.com/EmbracerInvest/status/1394637693301235714



smroadkill15 on 07 June 2021
EspadaGrim said:
smroadkill15 said:

As far as acquisitions go, Neon Giant could fit the bill. Xbox shows a trailer for The Ascent which releases next month and then announces the acquisition.

Not happening Embracer owns 24% of the studio and they are 100% going to buy the rest after the game launches. They wouldn’t let it go to MS.

https://mobile.twitter.com/EmbracerInvest/status/1394637693301235714

Dang, I didn't know that. 



EspadaGrim on 07 June 2021
shikamaru317 said:

Spoiler!

With Jez hinting at 2 AA tier acquisitions, I'm honestly not sure what they could be. Xbox has already acquired several independent AA's like inXile, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion, and Embracer has acquired loads more independent AA's including Flying Wild Hog, Aspyr, Free Radical, Milestone, New World, and Tarsier, among many others. We can likely rule out JP AA studios as well since ACG supposedly has a friend at one of the 2 studios being acquired, and it's less likely that he would have a friend at a JP studio than a western studio. It feels like slim pickings to me looking at what remains of the independent western AA field. Playtonic would be nice for reviving Banjo and Conker, but they already shot down an acquisition. Armature would be nice for putting ReCore 2 into development, but I can't see that happening sadly. Moon Studios would be good, but they don't want to be acquired. Embracer already bought 24% of Neon Giant so that likely won't happen. Studio MDHR seems to have been distancing themselves from Xbox recently. ZA/UM would be nice for continuing their WRPG dominance, but I'm not sure if the various regulatory bodies would allow MS to acquire them as it may create a WRPG monopoly.

That doesn't really leave many good AA options to be these 2 that Jez are teasing as far as I can see:

  • Rebellion Developments- Though the studio itself is AAA in size, it seems to be split between many AA teams currently, so maybe this could be what Jez is teasing since he says the IP's themselves aren't really AAA tier, not the studio specifically. They did recently put games on both Gamepass and FPS Boost afterall.
  • Studio Wildcard- As popular as Ark is, this would be a smart acquisition for MS, and Lord knows they need technical assistance from Microsoft's best studios like Coalition and Ninja Theory. 
  • 11 bit Studios- Definitely a AA studio and Frostpunk was pretty successful, selling 3m in 3 years.
  • GSC Gameworld- They are sort of in the middle ground between AA and AAA size (about 120 devs), and STALKER 2 is already timed exclusive to MS, it would make sense for MS to go all out and buy them, as it would strengthen PC Gamepass quite alot, due to the popularity of STALKER on PC

Spoiler!
Part of me still wishes that it’s Asobo and that Plague Tale is the AA IP that they acquired in a similar fashion that MS got Hellblade when they bought Ninja Theory. Asobo are not a small studio though they are over 200



Barozi on 07 June 2021

In case you didn't notice, I was on vacation for the past week and have returned.
Pretty much no gaming for me. (I did a little bit of xcloud and Game Pass for PC though).

I hope there will be a decent E3 sale. Still need to get my hands on Modern Warfare....

In the meantime, I still gotta finish Ace Combat 7 and Observation before they leave on the 15th.