As we all know, throughout the course of this generation Microsoft has been deemphasizing the role of their 1st and 2nd party assets in favor of working with 3rd party development studios. This strategy has been shown most recently through the closure of Ensemble Studios, the developers of one of my favorite RTS titles, Age of Mythology, but it has been going on for awhile now.
This strategy first became apparent through the closure of FASA Studios back in 2007. FASA was a subsidiary of Microsoft Games Studios best known for its work on titles like MechWarrior 4, MechCommander 1 & 2, and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. They were shutdown in September 2007, shortly after the release of the less then stellar Shadowrun, with only the Community Manager and Technical Support Manager positions remaining active to support their games.
The next victims of this strategy were a pair of Microsoft's second party studios, BioWare Corp. and Bizarre Creations. Microsoft had no qualms about letting EA acquire BioWare in October of 2007. Over the years, the studio has been responsible for various Xbox timed exclusives like the Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect. Now, their main projects are a PC exclusive KOTOR MMO and the multiplatform pc/ps3/360 title Dragon Age. They are still working on Mass Effect 2 for the 360, but it has yet to be confirmed whether it will hit the 360 prior to releasing on another platform, and it is unlikely that they will create another timed exclusive for one of Microsoft's consoles in the future.
Similar to the situation with BioWare, Microsoft was just fine letting Bizarre Creations, the team behind Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, get picked up by Activision. Bizarre took the Geometry Wars IP with them, resulting in it's later release on the Wii and DS, while Microsoft hung on to the Project Gotham Racing IP. Even though they own the IP, there needs to be somebody to actually work on the franchise, right? Last year, when questioned about the purchase of Bizarre Creations, the head of MGS stated in reference to PGR5 that Turn 10 is a possible candidate to develop the title. Just a few weeks ago, rumors surfaced claiming that Turn 10 is indeed working on the title, and that an announcement will be made pretty soon. But what does this mean for Forza? Certainly they'll continue working on that franchise as well, but unless Turn 10 is increased drastically in size, this will lead to more time between the release of new installments in each franchise.
The latest victim of Microsoft's move towards third party contracts is Ensemble Studios, the developers of the famed Age of Empires series (<3), currently working on Halo Wars exclusively for the Xbox 360. They were shut down just last month. Considering the success of Ensemble in the past, this closure was rather unexpected, even by those at the studio. Given my love for Age of Empires II and Age of Mythology, for me this closure was one of the saddest events in video game history. :(
Aside from the above studios, there is still one unknown quantity on the table: Mistwalker. The creators of Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey have been MIA for quite some time, and their absence at TGS in particular has lead many to question just what exactly they're up to. The only title that they've announced that has yet to be released is Cry On. Cry On was unveiled alongside Vampire Rain and Bullet Witch way back in 2005, all three being published and developed by AQ Interactive. Two have since been released, one going multiplatform, and if Cry On were to ever actual come out, it'd likely be multiplatform as well. And that's IF it comes out, which is unlikely at this point given that AQ Interactive is in financial distress and has canceled numerous projects over the past couple of years. Hell, it's been three years and we've seen nothing more than concept art.
So where is Mistwalker? What are they up to? What is their current relationship with Microsoft? Does Microsoft even care about them anymore, now that they've managed to gain the third party support of Namco and Square Enix via Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean 4? Afterall, only Mistwalker's Lost Odyssey has sold somewhat decently, and Blue Dragon Plus, the game intended to help the Blue Dragon franchise gain notoriety in Japan, debuted with absolutely horrible sales on the DS last month, so it's not like they've been doing all that much for Microsoft in Japan. Tales and Star Ocean are much bigger than anything Mistwalker could provide, even if they end up being only timed exclusives. I would not be surprised if Microsoft just left Mistwalker in the dust. I mean, look how fast they dropped Ensemble, who have a franchise that's sold over 20 million under their belt.
As you can see, it's quite obvious the path that Microsoft has taken this generation. Instead of worrying about first party titles, Microsoft is instead buying exclusivity from third parties. Whether it's a year's exclusivity for Bioshock, a month's exclusivity for Rock Band 2, or merely exclusive downloadable content for Fallout 3, this is what Microsoft deems most suitable for the future of the Xbox 360.
This, in conjunction with their plan of launching a year early, essentially forcing developers to make their franchises multiplatform due to extremely high developent costs and a userbase that simply cannot be ignored, has worked out rather well for Microsoft. With franchises like Grand Theft Auto, Devil May Cry, and Final Fantasy now multiplatform, along with 90% of the rest of third party titles, Microsoft is sitting in a rather comfy postition.
Of course, there haven't been too many third party exclusives announced for the 360 as of late (aside from Ninja Blade, from the wonderful From Software, the creators of Enchanted Arms, Armored Core, and that horrible looking Demon's Souls RPG for the ps3), but to be honest I don't think Microsoft cares. They used exclusives and timed exclusives at the beginning of this generation to bloody Sony's nose (a nose that was already heavily bloodied by their own $599 USD price point), and it's resulted in even Final Fucking Fantasy of all things going multiplatform.
I think at this point Microsoft feels that they can't do much else to change the position they're in, and they're already in a hell of a lot better position then they were last gen, so they'll just ride out the rest of the generation on a plethora of multiplats, with a couple of timed exclusives thrown in here and there, in addition to those titles produced by their few remaining 1st/2nd party studios: Rare, Lionhead, Turn 10, and Bungie/Team Halo.
