The Initiative always planned on co-developing Perfect Dark in this manner, that was verified by multiple insiders. I'm not sure why people panic so much about news like this, it's hugely common in the gaming industry for studios to either partner or work with multiple studios, almost every single AAA nowadays is created by multiple studios.

Nobody does anything alone nowadays in AAA development. The scale for The Initiative/Crystal Dynamics is a little larger but there's multiple examples of that, World's Edge and Relic on Age of Empires IV, The Coalition and Splash Damage on Gears of War 4/5. How multiple Ubisoft studios work on each Assassin's Creed at the same time, CoD is the same, Nintendo EPD and Monolith, etc.

If it wasn't Crystal Dynamics, then The Initiative would have hired multiple other studios to assist on development because that's how game development is. Crystal Dynamics won't be the only ones assisting on Perfect Dark either because again, that's game development.

Everwild is a bit messy, it was definitely revealed too early, before they even had an idea of what the game would be, then they lost their Creative Director and soon after rebooted it. It happens, I don't really think people understand how volatile game development is for AAA, if everything was revealed as early as some projects, we'd be hearing about reboots nonstop.

It took Guerrilla Games 7 years to make Horizon Zero Dawn.

Why credit Playground Games for the work they do on ForzaTech but not the work that Turn 10 does for ForzaTech which in turn helps Forza Horizon? Turn 10 assists Playground on Forza Horizon and heck according to Linkedin they're assisting them on Fable too because Fable reportedly is using ForzaTech as well. It's not a new engine, no, but it is being heavily revamped for both Forza's sim side and now an Open World RPG.

Yeah, I don't think Compulsion's next title is AAA, I think it'll be upper on the AA scale but you're ignoring some factors, to start with, Compulsion Games is a ~80 employee studio and secondly, We Happy Few had multiple story expansions released for it, the latest being November 2019. Undead Labs is definitely moving into AAA development for State of Decay 3, and they do have multiple studios now, they're expanding, which is a good thing, but UL is still ~130 employees.

It's not solely down to the pandemic but it's foolish to pretend it didn't play a huge part in restricting development schedules and restricting the ability for some of these studios to grow quicker, not to mention, Sony delayed multiple projects during the pandemic, it's just that Sony had a far better pipeline than Microsoft which meant they can take the delays easier, and Sony didn't have to basically restart their development starting 2018.

The Initiative/Playground are both building from the ground up for AAA development so it's likely that they're going to take even longer than even the traditional AAA development schedules, as I pointed out, Horizon Zero Dawk took 7 years to make and that was with an already established studio and not during a pandemic but that's fine because games take time.

Easily the worst. Glad that this will be the last year like this. They are getting to the point soon where they will have far too many 1st party studios and 2nd party deals to not release at least 4 AAA games per year.

There is a lot of outsourcing with AAA game development, but not codevelopment. Don't conflate the two. Developers help projects, but are not assigned to the project in the same way the lead development studio is. For example, 343 is credited as the development studio for Halo Infinite despite outsourcing content from The Coalition and other development studios.

It wasnt 7 years to create Horizon Zero Dawn, it was less than 6,  meanwhile the studio still had a a major release in that period because most studios take on multiple projects at once. This is in addition to creating a new engine. Turn 10 will have released Forza with an updated engine (not a new one) with no major releases in that period. Let's not forget that Horizon is also a new IP in an open world whereas Forza is an existing IP in a very linear one.  

I didn't just credit playground games. I said they are building off some of that work. Which means they aren't using a completely brand new engine or a very old engine that is completely outdated. Turn 10 gets credit for what they do, but PG should get credit for what they have done. 

MS recently laid off 1000 workers, which is the second time this year they've had major layoffs. Some of these workers are from their Xbox division. They reported record breaking revenue in this time period. MS has the capability to support these developers with more staffing. They don't. 

I didn't pretend the pandemic didn't have any impact. I said it's not JUST the pandemic. Other publishers are still able to put out multiple AAA games in this time period. It's an excuse for having a slow year. It's not an excuse for not having a single AAA game releases in a year timeframe. 

We can also look at other development studios, such as 343, that are horribly mismanaged. A six year wait for Halo Infinite, delayed multiple times, while creating an engine and they still didn't deliver much of what they promised (e.g. coop) and, technically, it is not a good engine. Or, at least, it isn't good for infinite given the huge technical issues it has. 

As I said before, development studios often take on multiple projects. Just like Guerilla did with Zero Dawn and Shadowfall. These studios also arent creating new engines like Naughty Dog, Guerilla, or Sony Santa Monica. PG is using ForzaTech for Fable and the Coalition is using Unreal 5. Yes it takes a while to make games, but MS has had 13+ studios for over 4 years with nothing to show for it this year. 

It's almost like Microsoft just isn't good at managing studios or juggling projects.

The numbers just can't add up. None of the cherry-picking or selective biases matter. They've been collecting studios like kids collect pokemon cards and despite having as much as they do we're not seeing releases with any form of consistency.

It doesn't matter if 'the initiative' hasn't released a game or 'the coalition' always intended to do cooperative development. 23 studios and counting. (And counting!) There's no justification for this lack of output other than just not being good at it. You can try to justify each missing game and delay, you can try your best to make up excuses, but none of them account for how they manage to own this many studios and not get anything out. Even if every argument about dev time or circumstances is true, the purpose of having 23 studios and counting is to ensure that if a game gets delayed or circumstances arise, there's some wiggle room. there's insurance.

Starfield and Redfall being delayed until next year is a good thing. It really is. I'd rather wait for better games than force broken ones. But why weren't there at least 5-8 other games there to fill the void? Why did they have nothing? Why can't they attract third parties to make games for their console like Sony and Nintendo can? They have the money, clearly, so why can't they form those bonds and maintain partnerships?

The only move they have is to just buy companies and even then it's not enough.

I'm sorry, but they're just not good at this. Sony and Nintendo have ups and downs and learn from it. Microsoft has been failing and continuing to fail to deliver since before the Xbox One launched. I want them to get better, I truly do, but they're just not good at it. They have a lot of money and can take risks on stuff like GamePass. That's their strength. It's just that simple. Their console has no unique features, it's just a powerful box. they have framerates and resolutions and load times that are so indecipherable to the human eye you need machines to tell the difference. No cool controller functions or VR or portability. Just a powerful box with gamepass on it and so few exclusive games it's honestly kind of sad.

23 studios and counting. They've been struggling, falling behind, and failing to deliver to some degree or another since 2011/2012. That's not a dry spell, that's a pattern. In those years there hasn't been a single time they 'won' in the game department compared to Sony or Nintendo.

Buying activision/blizzard is their only move because any other move they make they disappoint. They NEED Activision-Blizzard to compete. they are absolutely right about that and they admit it. Sony being pissed off about that is fair because Microsoft shouldn't just be buying studios to compete, they should learn how to develop games first, THEN you make acquisitions. They're making all the investments and spending all the money without the fundamental skill and knowledge to do the job. They have always been a brute force style. Just toss money at the problem. Buy all the competition, do nothing with them. Put out more powerful consoles despite power never being the deciding factor in what console consumers prefer. Bleed money on Gamepass because even if it fails it'll barely touch their Scrooge-McDuck levels of wealth.

and yeah I know this will NOT be a popular post (Especially not in a forum that has way too many apologists for Microsoft/Xbox), but you know I'm right. Collectively you can argue all you want, but it's been too long, with too poor of a result, and too many unfulfilled promises. They have a pattern, and it's not good. Could they turn it around? Yeah, 2023 genuinely does look good but it's coming after a consistent decade of disappointment. "Oh but Forza" yeah, that's one franchise. "But Flight simulator!" That's one game. what about all the outstanding games the competition has gotten in that same time period. Mario Kart, Zelda, Mario Odyssey, Splatoon, Horizon, God of War, Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, Bloodborne, ARMS, Xenoblade Chronicles, Smash Bros, and so, SO many others.

They just can't compete without buying all the biggest and most influential third party developers and publishers. If they could, they would have by now. I hope the activision deal goes through because Microsoft NEEDS it and they're absolutely right when they say that even with Acti-Blizz they still won;'t be able to compete with the universal love Nintendo gets or the global market Sony has on lockdown. at best they're fighting for the US with their heavily Western-styled games and even then they're losing to both Sony and Nintendo.

There is a lot of outsourcing with AAA game development, but not codevelopment. Don't conflate the two. Developers help projects, but are not assigned to the project in the same way the lead development studio is. For example, 343 is credited as the development studio for Halo Infinite despite outsourcing content from The Coalition and other development studios.

It wasnt 7 years to create Horizon Zero Dawn, it was less than 6,  meanwhile the studio still had a a major release in that period because most studios take on multiple projects at once. This is in addition to creating a new engine. Turn 10 will have released Forza with an updated engine (not a new one) with no major releases in that period. Let's not forget that Horizon is also a new IP in an open world whereas Forza is an existing IP in a very linear one.  

I didn't just credit playground games. I said they are building off some of that work. Which means they aren't using a completely brand new engine or a very old engine that is completely outdated. Turn 10 gets credit for what they do, but PG should get credit for what they have done. 

MS recently laid off 1000 workers, which is the second time this year they've had major layoffs. Some of these workers are from their Xbox division. They reported record breaking revenue in this time period. MS has the capability to support these developers with more staffing. They don't. 

I didn't pretend the pandemic didn't have any impact. I said it's not JUST the pandemic. Other publishers are still able to put out multiple AAA games in this time period. It's an excuse for having a slow year. It's not an excuse for not having a single AAA game releases in a year timeframe. 

We can also look at other development studios, such as 343, that are horribly mismanaged. A six year wait for Halo Infinite, delayed multiple times, while creating an engine and they still didn't deliver much of what they promised (e.g. coop) and, technically, it is not a good engine. Or, at least, it isn't good for infinite given the huge technical issues it has. 

As I said before, development studios often take on multiple projects. Just like Guerilla did with Zero Dawn and Shadowfall. These studios also arent creating new engines like Naughty Dog, Guerilla, or Sony Santa Monica. PG is using ForzaTech for Fable and the Coalition is using Unreal 5. Yes it takes a while to make games, but MS has had 13+ studios for over 4 years with nothing to show for it this year. 

How long did it take from the last GT to the new one?, nevermind that the new one doesnt even look that good and is no longer the top sim racing game like it once was with nothing but MTX in it. Turn 10 is a racing studio they can take their time developing the next forza motorsport game as they have playground who released Horizon. You seem to be very selective in what your nitpicking at here. As a writer on VGC i hope you dont let that same kind of biased ways come into your reviews as if you do i hope you never get to write a review for any MS game.

GT Sport released in 2017 and GT7 released in 2021, so 4 years. I disagree that the new one doesn't look as good as Sport, but I've also not played either one of them so what I've seen amounts to some gameplay from it's reveal. I haven't dived too deep, but I will following this comment. That said, I wouldn't consider Polyphony a terribly great studio, and one reason I haven't played Sport or GT7 is their emphasis on online and Mtx. I do own sport, though (got it in a bundle for my PSVR)

I have no idea what you're talking about with bias. I've not made a single statement about the quality of any of MS's titles (aside from Infinite being a technical mess, but that's objective and doesn't mean the gameplay isn't good) Their studio output is lacking severely. I'm calling them out.