Hello

I have spent some time analyzing some details that have been recently announced by Microsoft Game Studios in relation to game development and I must say, I am pleased with what has been taking place.  In a nutshell, MS has been doing some due diligence and has slowly amassed a team of extremely talented individuals to further their gaming division.  Unlike Sony and Nintendo, MS doesn’t have many first party studios but I have made an assumption as to why. 

Looking at MGS as a whole, I feel that they are gearing more towards a virtual company then a vertical one.  This means that instead of going the acquisition route and acquiring big name firms they have instead hired in talented staff that all work under MS Game Studios.  I feel that moving forward this organization structure will be a huge benefit due to cross-functional game development across the various IP’s that are in development.  Take Halo Chronicles for example.  You have the Bungie Team, Peter Jackson, Ryan Payton (MGS4), Corrine Yu (Gearbox) and Kenneth Scott (ID) all heading up its various development tasks.  I feel that this is a much better method of game development and doing business in general.  Why spend millions and at times billions of dollars acquiring a third party firm when you can simply bring in the talent that has been behind huge games. 

This is what I feel MS advantage is, a team based structure.  We will always see the Rare and Lionhead games, but as a “hardcore” gamer, I cannot see anything that excites me more then something like this.

Many people have talked about 2009 and how it will finally be Sony’s year (I do not consider 2008 to be there year, sales and games wise) but I beg to differ.  I think we will see something amazing from MS come 2009.  With a huge list of probable and exclusive games already coming, I anticipate something a lot bigger in production.     

Take Care and happy gaming.

Fan

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/915/915335p1.html

i agree with your observation, i think so far, the year from 2006 to 2008 so far are the year of MS-Xbox360.

Some good insight there. Yes, MS appears to be building a team for the long-term instead of just playing the Borg and assimilating 3rd parties.

Why buy a developer when you can either money-hat an exclusive or get mutli-platform support anyway? No its much better if they go down the Nintendo route.

Dont forget, Frank O' Connor is also in MGS now along with Tony Goodman from Ensemble.

Its a very substantial team based on the previous games (and movies) all these people have been involved in and I cant wait to see the fruits from this. In the next year, I would think all these people would be mostly working on Halo games so I wouldnt expect any new IP announcements till E3 2009.

I also cant wait to see what this new Lionhead project is, new Bungie IP and Rares next projects. I am a bit alarmed on the complete silence from Mistwalker though.

I like the direction of less internal studios. To me gaming is about constant innovation. It is difficult to make the modern AAA games, and the type of people required are entrepeneurs, not usually long term employees. If I look at Nintendo there are a few good internal studios working on Mario and Zelda. Over at Sony, I haven't seen much first party stuff worth talking about this generation yet. First party studios seem to work best at arms length like Insomniac with R&C / Resistance, Bungie with Halo, Turn 10 with Racing games, Epic with Gears, hopefully Remedy for Alan Wake, etc.

Also, keeping even first party studios at arms length encourages, third party studios. You get the feeling that if you have a good idea and you bring it to MS they might publish it as a first party title, then you could have the interntion to move on to Activision Blizzard, or EA afterwards for the big cross platform bucks. But, MS ends up getting the first two or three titles in an IP which are usually the best ones.

That said, I also like the building of their new studio for Halo. When you have a really good system selling IP like Halo is, it makes sense to have an internal studio to execute and expand the universe.

Less stuidos means less 1st party games. Sony has awesome 1st party games so does nintendo.

Sony & nintendo way works better for me as I have lots of 1st party games THIS YEAR to look forward to.

Totally agree with this thread. Go dream team !

These parts...

"Unlike Sony and Nintendo, MS doesn’t have many first party studios..."

"This means that instead of going the acquisition route and acquiring big name firms they have instead hired in talented staff..."

Makes sense so far, but...

"This is what I feel MS advantage is, a team based structure...."

...and...

"...but as a 'hardcore' gamer, I cannot see anything that excites me more then something like this..."

So shouldn't the article writer "cannot see anything that excites" him more that Nintendo and SONY 1st/2nd party offerings arleady???

What's the Nintendo route again?

If anything, Microsoft is going the Nintendo route of de-centralizing their parties, and focusing more on 2nd party development.

I once asked myself the question "how many titles is Nintendo really making?" The answer is: Not as many as you think.

What games did Nintendo not make?

1. Smash Brothers Brawl

2. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

3. Pokemon Platinum

4. Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon

5. Mario Party DS

6. Mario Party 8

7. Flash Focus DS

8. Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin

9. Super Mario Sluggers

And so on.

The point being is that Nintendo, while they have excellent first party developers, also has a massive amount of funding going to 2nd party efforts. Thats where Nintendo excells at - Putting the Nintendo stamp and wallet on other developer's work, which makes Nintendo tons of money.

Because of that, it may be an easier and smarter route for Microsoft to work on building up IP credibility, and acquiring the rights to specific franchises. One of the most effective developers for Microsoft, this generation (in terms of getting new users to the system) has been Mistwalker, which has absolutely no affiliation with Microsoft as a 1st party studio.

And I think all of that is the key. Rather than buy up a studio for a billion dollars, why not buy 50 games for $20m each? I mean....Wouldn't you take 50 IPs over 4 Rare games?