I totally get MS's reasoning behind GP, at least from a business sense, but do you guys think MS studios should all be doing multiple smaller projects to keep GP content fresh, or would you like to see them focus more on larger scale AAA titles?

Obviously we don't know exactly what they're all working on but take Ninja Theory for example. They're making Hellblade 2 but they also just released Bleeding Edge and are doing Project Mara as well. Obsidian's new game Grounded also looks like a small scale project and the Initiative apparently also has multiple "small" projects they're working on. It just feels like there's a very strong indie vibe to all the games we're seeing from MS's 1st party studios, even though I'm sure a lot of them will turn out to be great. Hell, Gears tactics looks more interesting than Gears 4 or 5 and I loved Ori. However, those are not typically the kind of games I would buy a next gen console for.

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~ trasharmdsister12 - Your friendly, neighbourhood Squirtle

What Quantity?

I agree. I just feel like MS recent direction is the reason for so many mediocre exclusives. Sure they bought a bunch of studios(not of fan of this anyway) then have those studios be working on 2-3 projects at a time. It's a recipe for a few things. Mediocre reception (Bleeding Edge the most recent) and cancelations. I would not be surprised if Mara gets canned later down the line, heavily delayed or becomes that one game that never gets officially canceled but never releases. I get what they are potentially trying to do. Nintendo did something similar in the 2017 launch year of Switch with so many titles to avoid mistakes with Wii U droughts. Xbox One often cited for long droughts for exclusives....but they had 2 issues. Middling reception and long waits in between games esp in 2018. So they may be only fixing one half of the problem. Hopefully both but seeing Bleeding Edge and even Crackdown last year. I have my doubts.

The good:
Ori and the blind forest - 88
Ori and the will of the wisps - 90
Gears 4 - 84
Gears 5 - 84
Halo: The Master Chief Collection - 85
Halo 5: Guardians - 84
Forza Horizon 3 - 91 (+ Hot Wheels - 87)
Forza Horizon 4 - 92
Forza Motorsport 6 - 87
Forza Motorsport 7 - 86
Quatum Break - 77
Killer Instinct - 73
Sunset Overdrive - 81

The bad (and or ugly):
Bleeding edge - 68  (has 13 viewers on twitch right now. Intrest seems really low)
Crackdown 3 - 60 (has 1 viewer on twitch.tv)
Recore - 63
State of decay 2 - 66
Sea of theives - 69
Super Lucky's Tale - 64
Zoo Tycoon: ultimate Animal collection - 70
Rush: A disney/pixar adventure - 68
Disneyland Adventures - 67
Phantom Dust - 73
Voodoo Vince: Remastered - 69
Halo Wars 2 - 79
Dead Riseing 4 - 72
Project Spark - 73

Microsoft does just as many good, as they do these smaller terrible games.
If its Forza/Gears/Halo, its likely a good game. Those guys that make "Ori" seem to make enjoyable platformers too.

Alot of these multiplayer focused games that review poorly, are just left to die a week or two after release.
State of decay 2, seems to have "stuck" around better (than crackdown 3 or Bleeding edge).

I think its a bad strategy to focus so much on these multiplayer focused games, theres too many of them, most are poor quality.
Big AAA games from multiplats, do things so much better that these games are basically just fighting a loseing battle from the start.
Its almost unavoidable, that they just end up left for dead.

 It's in the pipeline along with all the quality the trouble is MS  under Don Matrick made the world's first circular pipeline without an exit point, but not to worry Phil has a plan and he has started with making sure the series x design does in no way look circular, but they have a sticking point with the discs apparently square BD discs make a grinding sound as the edges scrape the housing,the rumour is they are looking at two solutions one is using the same fan has the PS4 Pro to hide the noise, the other solution is to tell gamers that because we wanted to give you the full 360 experience we built in the 360's disc grinding noise and to show how far ahead of Sony we are, we put it into the hardware Sony BC is only doing the Pro's noise in software.

There's really no point in asking this question right now. MS only just acquired all these new studios, and some of the projects they've currently released (Bleeding Edge), and announced (Grounded) were already in development when these studios were acquired. Making games takes a pretty significant amount of time. It'll be at least 3 years before we really have a good sense of what type of quality and quantity we can expect from MS moving forward.

They don't necessarily have to be bad games, though. Some might say Ori is the best new ip this gen, and probably the best exclusive to come out of a MS studio since forever. The quality of these indie style games will probably be pretty good. I mean Gears Tactics might be a better game than Gears 4 or 5. However, are that really the type of games that would move Series X boxes? Personally I don't think so as games like that are simply targeted towards a different audience than the ones who care most about AAA games like Halo and Gears. 

February: Wasteland remastered
March:  Ori/Bleeding Edge 

April: Minecraft dungeons (delayed to may)/Gears Tactics

June: Wasteland 3 (delayed to August)

Spring: Grounded (expect date today)

Summer: Tell me why

Fall:  Halo Infinite

Expected this year but could be delayed: Forza/Flying Simulator/Battletoads/Psychonauts 2/Crossfire X/Kartrider/Age of empires IV and possible some games not yet announced this year.

Everwild/Hellblade I don't expect this year.

But plenty of studios have more than one project especially studios like Double Fine/Ninja Theory.



Quantity over Quality is what Nintendo Accused Sony of back in the day it is certainly not a bad thing.

Didnt Ori 2 reach critical acclaim..?

There is nothing wrong with AA games. The studios at MS have a AAA and AA team. Games like Bleedings Edge is not a bad game, its a game. Hellblade 2 and Project Mara are the releases you need to watch.

EverWild

Grounded

Gears Tactics 

Wasteland 3

Battletoads

Halo Infinite 

Psychonauts 2

Age of Empires 4

Look at the variety, tell me a better variety of games due out this year? There is a game for everyone and they all look appealing and fun in there own way.

Thats not including titles coming from Turn 10, The Intinitive, Playground Games, Compulsion and Undead Labs. 

These studios are doing exactly what others denie them doing, and thats creative freedom. They are doing what they like and it looks exciting.

Maybe you're right and I'm sure they will be cool games. Still, I don't think any of those games will get people as fired up compared to something like TLOU2, GOW, HZD2 for example. Obviously, there's still Halo, but wouldn't you like to see some new AAA ip's from MS?